October 17th, 2008
Last week my colleague, Kai, had an interesting post about a UCLA study about cyberbullying. The statistic that really bothered me from that study was that about 50 per cent of teens said they did not report cyberbullying incidents because they thought they needed to “learn to deal with it.”
I suspect that in other instances of bullying - not online - that the number is probably the same or even greater. That is why I was intrigued to read about the SchoolTipLine website. The site was created by a Brigham Young University student who witnesses his older sister be bullied in high school.
SchoolTipLine lets students anonymously report bullies and other activities at school that they don;t feel comfortable with. The site acts as third party by forwarding the information along to participating schools. According to an Oct. 16 post on the ABC News website, 54 schools (ranging from elementary to high school) in Arizona, Utah, California, Texas and Washington now use it. Included in that group is the school where the creator’s sister was harassed and transferred from.
The site does have its critics though. Some feel that the site is insufficient and could be used incorrectly by students. I think that anything that provides a way for students to feel safe and empowers them to speak out is good.
How do you feel?
Robin