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Ty Nordic understands the need to inform kids about the dangers of sexual predators on the Internet. But when his 16-year-old daughter was targeted during an assembly at Windsor High School on the first day of school Tuesday afternoon, Nordic was left with plenty of unanswered questions for the presenter whom he said used inappropriate language during the assembly and singled out specific students.

Governor Rod Blagojevich Thursday signed Senate Bill 2512 legislation to help protect children from the dangers of the Internet. SB 2512 requires school districts, beginning in the 2009-2010 school year, to incorporate an "age-appropriate Internet safety unit of instruction in the current course of study regularly taught in the district's schools," beginning in third grade.

Schools are starting to embrace iPods, portable digital media players, as teaching tools. While some teachers have dabbled in podcasting -- like posting snippets of news broadcasts on school websites for students to download -- K-12 on iTunes U is billed as a way to bring content to a place where it can be searched and shared.

A 14-year old boy was accused of making threats on MySpace, where his page showed a tombstone, satanic references and admiration for the shooters in the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, authorities said. Through instant messages on MySpace to another student, he also threatened to lock the cafeteria doors during one of the lunch periods and shoot everyone inside, authorities said. In lieu of imprisonment, the student has been transferred to an alternative facility and is prohibited from logging onto MySpace or Facebook or making contact with students from his former school. The boy's attorney said the boy used his MySpace page to react against intense bullying at the middle school, which left him in fear. The boy has said that one of the bullies threatened to slit his throat.

This book was written by three school psychologists, all certified in Olweus Bullying Prevention training. They have applied their knowledge in that area to "cyberbullying." If you are an educator or a parent of an adolescent, this book is a must read. As the authors have stated, the impact of students using computers, etc. has had not only a positive but also a negative impact on the learning environment and safety issues within our schools. Cyberbullying in its infancy is creating an epidemic of problems. Awareness of the problem, what schools and parents should do to address cyberbullying, how the different states and schools systems view cyberbullying, and current resources are discussed by the authors. It is a compilation of the most current research.

Technology has out-paced the legal system in issues related to cyberbullying in the schools. When a cyberbullying incident happens at your school, how will you handle it? What board policies will protect you? What is appropriate discipline? What kind of documentation do you need? How will you assure a safe environment for your students? Learn from national experts who have studied court decisions related to cyberbullying of students, teachers and school administrators.

School districts are improving their physical security, but they might be neglecting the security of their computer infrastructure, if the results of an annual survey are any indication. The average physical safety rating of K-12 school districts improved by 39 percent over 2007, while the average cyber safety rating declined by 25 percent during the same time period, according to CDW-G's "2008 School Safety Index," which is designed to mark the current state of K-12 school safety.

CTAP Region IV has designed this collection of Administrator Resources specifically with the needs of school administrators in mind. Administrator Resources cover 6 vital areas:
1. Legal Issues
2. Student Misbehavior in Cyberspace: MySpace, YouTube, Facebook
3. Cybersafety and School Board Policy Statements
4. Cyberbullying Documentation: Incident Reports/Review Process
5. Articles Related to Internet MisUse in the Schools
6. Materials for PTA Presentations

As school leaders prepare to spend billions of dollars in federal stimulus money, the American Library Association (ALA) is lobbying to have some of those dollars used to keep school libraries up to date during hard economic times.

THE mother of a former student at the prestigious Sydney girls' school embroiled in a cyber-bullying scandal has spoken out about the claimed culture of intimidation at Ascham. The woman said yesterday, on condition of anonymity, that her daughter had been forced to leave the school after becoming the target of bullies."There is a culture of bullying at the school which has been going on for years," she said. "These days it is cyber bullying, when my daughter was there it was text messages."

A court case upholds administrators' rights to discipline a student who used derogatory language on a blog, but questions arise. In Doninger v. Niehoff, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in May that a Connecticut school district that disciplined a student for vulgar and derogatory remarks made off-campus did not violate her free speech rights.

As more and more people have access to computers and mobile phones, a new risk to youngsters has begun to emerge. Electronic aggression, in the form of threatening text messages and the spread of online rumours on social networking sites, is a growing concern.

Responding to the Challenge of Online Social Aggression, Threats, and Distress
This book belongs in every school district! Nancy Willard is Director of the Center for Safe & Responsible Internet Use and a noted expert and speaker on the challenges and legal issues related to technology use in the schools. Her book helps school administrators analyze and intervene in cases involving cyberbullying or cyberthreats. She includes illustrative examples, recommendations for practice, and many practical resources. Available through Amazon.com

Public schools and local governments may have more stringent requirements than most businesses for email archiving and electronic discovery. Yet, with their limited budgets, schools and local governments are often the least equipped to respond.The newly revised Federal Rules of Civil Procedure define how email must be handled in federal court cases. Businesses tend to think that the FRCP focus is on interstate lawsuits. Schools and governments, however, also need to be concerned with emails relating to federally funded activities or any activity governed by federal legislation.In addition, schools and local governments have the burden of responding to (1) requests under open meeting and Freedom of Information Act laws, (2) offensive emails or those with sexual content involving students, and (3) emailed threats.

Copyright primer for school admnistrators, developed by Hall Davidson. This resource is designed to inform school leaders of what they may do under the law. Very helpful document. We use this at all of our CTAP school administrator trainings.

"n 2006, I had the opportunity to conduct focus group interviews with students on the topic of cyberbullying. I partnered with Dr. Robin Kowalski and Dr. Susan Limber, psychologists at Clemson University who had already conducted a national survey on cyberbullying with students in grades 6 through 8. To build on that knowledge, we interviewed 148 middle and high school students in public schools. We selected schools in part for their diverse socioeconomic status.tudents in public schools.

Since social-media use is so multi-faceted, no single approach will apply to all situations. Some schools may opt to place an outright ban on social-media access at school as well as prohibit "friending" parents, students and other employees. Other schools may simply prohibit employees from identifying their school online. As the use of social-networking sites for educational and community communication purposes increases, schools may need to adapt to the mainstream use of such sites and recognize that a blanket prohibition simply isn't practical. Regardless, your school should take action now to safeguard against social media mishaps.

Parents have been urged to confiscate their children's mobile phones at night and monitor computer use after two year 9 students from the prestigious Sydney girls' school Ascham were forced to leave the school because of cyber-bullying.

School Security Virtual Summit: T.H.E. Journal, in collaboration with CDW-G and its security partners, invites you and your peers to gain insights and exchange best practices that will successfully secure your school, information and students.

On June 30th, Missouri governor, Matt Blunt, signed a bill updating state laws against harassment by removing the requirement in the legislation requiring that such harassing communication be written or made over the telephone. Now, harassment from computers, text messages and other electronic devices may also be considered illegal. The amended law also requires school boards to create a written policy requiring schools to report harassment and stalking committed on school property to local police, including such done via the Internet.