Cyber Bullying: No Harm No Foul?

In class we discussed cyber bullying, or repeated teasing and harassing that occurs through computer mediated technology.  Some points that were made about cyber bullying are that it is common but difficult to quantify and there are no clear precedents.  In other words, some cases rule in favor of victims or schools while some rule in favor of bullies.  One case we discussed in class involved a high school senior, Sarah Evans, who created a Facebook page untitled “Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever had.”  According to the New York Times article, Student Suspended for Facebook Page Can Sue, Ms. Evans repeatedly clashed with her teacher Ms. Phelps and created the Facebook page to vent her frustration.  She invited other students to write what they thought about Ms. Phelps as well, but took down the page after a few days.  Two months later, however, Ms. Evans was suspended for three days because of the page and she decided to sue the school.

To my surprise, the judge would not dismiss the case and one of the lawyers stated the judge’s decision “extended the protection of First Amendment rights to online writings of a nonthreatening manner.”  Although, I agree that the page was not threatening I do think it sets a precedent where kids can cyber bully in a nonthreatening that still may end in tragedy.  If this case would have involved a younger victim or resulted in some kind of physical harm, I think the ruling would have been very different.  I cannot help but think now this case could be used as a defense if a student creates a page similar to the “Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever had,” and it ends in suicide or any form of self-harm.

Personally, this relates to my own life because when I was 13 someone created a Myspace page for the sole purpose of bullying one of my best friends.  The page degraded her character and just all around bashed her.  Luckily my friend did not take it to heart and it was the source of constant amusement for us and our other friends.  I think that if my friend did not have a strong support group or high confidence it could have seriously affected her.  To this day we never truly found out who created the Myspace page.  Though, we do have suspicions that it was the mother of a girl we were no longer friends with.  I mean what 13 year old disses your parent’s kitchen wallpaper… lol.

With the growth of communication technologies and different types of social media, cyber bullying as become a huge issue that was not addressed when I began using the internet and social media.  Although I am a firm supporter of free speech, I do think we need more specific laws on what constitutes cyber bullying.  Hopefully, with the focus on anti-bullying programs kids will learn how harmful bullying can be.  Maybe this generation will even take these messages into adulthood and there will be less trollers looking to wreak havoc over the internet (though I doubt that will happen).