| 6 Steps to Fight Successfully Against Cyber Bullying |
 CyberBully Hotline advisory board member, Janet M. Irvine, has published an article in Tech & Learning Magazine entitled "6 Steps to Fight Successfully Against Cyber Bullying." The article offers great ideas and insight from Janet’s 20+ year career as an educator and administrator. A quick summer read and good prep for next year! Read the full article here. |
Monday, January 21, 2013
THE REPORTER June 2012
TECH & LEARNING May 2012
TECH & LEARNING
TL Advisor Blog
May 30,2012
by Janet M. Irvine, SchoolReach CyberBully Hotline Contributor
Bullying in school is hardly a new problem, but in today’s “connected” world, it does not look like it once did. Face-to-face harassment incidents, once confined to the schoolyard, have gone high tech, making it even more difficult for bystanders to step in and step up.
With access to computers, cell phones and other technologies, young people today are easily able to target one another using social media outlets like Facebook and YouTube, or other means such as email, instant messaging, and text messaging. While no national law against cyber bullying currently exists, many states are putting anti-cyber bullying laws into effect. Of course, a good way for school administrators to help tackle the issue is to stop it before it starts.
The following are some essential tips to prevent cyber bully actions:
1. Build it, and they will come. Build awareness through anti-bully days and assemblies where cyber bullying is the focus. Use screen savers to display warnings about cyber bullying – with messages of positive digital citizenship for potential bullies, potential victims, and potential bystanders. Link school computers to a short educational clip outlining the expectations for responsible Internet use and the risks and consequences of cyber bullying.
2. An Ounce of Prevention. Teach students and adults – teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators -- to LOOK at what is happening around them. It is important for schools to develop a culture of listening, observing, and offering empathy. Increase staff and student understanding of online privacy and ethical behavior, digital footprints, and not-so-anonymous virtual lives. Have students sign an anti-bullying/ cyber bullying pledge where students pledge not to bully others and to speak up if they know someone is being bullied – face-to-face or virtually. Be sure to engage parents in the process, communicate program details, encourage openness and share with them what signs to look for at home and how to talk with their children about the issue.
3. Cyber Environment 101. See the urgent need to prevent online bullying and to support behavioral changes by assigning a high priority to curriculum integration and information resources. Through embedded curriculum and elective classes, advance the profile of responsible online behavior by offering classes that teach online strategies to thwart cyber bullying and useful options to prevent, respond to, and report cyber bullying. Consider offering a video production class where students create engaging videos for posting to YouTube complete with anti-bullying and anti-cyber bullying messages. Another idea: have students collaborate to develop video games incorporating anti-bullying messages.
4. Practice Makes Perfect. Talking about something is one thing, but practice does make perfect. Consider practice situations that emphasize freedom of expression versus individual rights to safety, privacy, and protection from harm. Role-play the different players in cyber bullying – the bully, the victim, the bystander, the staff, the parent, the police. Brainstorm online scenarios that support positive online behavior and reporting online issues. Consider having the school or district’s IT department provide in-service workshops for teachers, counseling staff, and administrators for a better understanding of how the ever-changing cyber environment works.
5. Maintain to Gain. Anti-bullying or cyber bullying principles need repetition and reinforcement. Use rewards and consequences that have direct impacts. Reward the internal values and strengths that promote positive online behavior and deal swiftly with clear, strong, and immediate consequences for a bully’s negative online behavior. Involve parents and the home environment. This is critical to both the motivation of positive online behavior and the prevention of negative online behavior. Consider sponsoring public forums dealing with home Internet use. Recognize that external events and individualized perceptions fuel internal forces – both positive and negative. Repeat your programs each year, and every semester until there are measurable results; then repeat them again. And remember: social media can be your friend. Districts and schools with Facebook and Twitter accounts should regularly share information and resources with strong anti-bully and anti-cyber bullying messages.
6. Do Something About It. The largest challenge to combating bullying is not recognizing that it is happening in the first place. At the National Convention on Bullying, Sean Burke, President of the School Safety Advocacy Council said, “The biggest problem with bully prevention is reporting.” And that goes for students and schools, alike. Consider adding an affordable, anonymous reporting service like the SchoolReach CyberBully Hotline. The service offers students an anonymous, two-way communication tool to report bullying and cyber bullying directly to school officials; those administrators can reply, also anonymously, to provide students the help they need to address the offensive bullying act as a victim or a bystander. For students who remain fearful of retaliation or who are not sure what to do or who to turn to, anonymous reporting services offer students a communication tool to report bullying and cyber bullying safely and immediately.
There will never be a complete “cure” for bullying and cyber bullying behavior. However, with continuous focus, energy, and commitment, there can be successful management of all forms of bullying, with significant minimization of the number of victims:
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
Bullying in school is hardly a new problem, but in today’s “connected” world, it does not look like it once did. Face-to-face harassment incidents, once confined to the schoolyard, have gone high tech, making it even more difficult for bystanders to step in and step up.
With access to computers, cell phones and other technologies, young people today are easily able to target one another using social media outlets like Facebook and YouTube, or other means such as email, instant messaging, and text messaging. While no national law against cyber bullying currently exists, many states are putting anti-cyber bullying laws into effect. Of course, a good way for school administrators to help tackle the issue is to stop it before it starts.
The following are some essential tips to prevent cyber bully actions:
1. Build it, and they will come. Build awareness through anti-bully days and assemblies where cyber bullying is the focus. Use screen savers to display warnings about cyber bullying – with messages of positive digital citizenship for potential bullies, potential victims, and potential bystanders. Link school computers to a short educational clip outlining the expectations for responsible Internet use and the risks and consequences of cyber bullying.
2. An Ounce of Prevention. Teach students and adults – teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators -- to LOOK at what is happening around them. It is important for schools to develop a culture of listening, observing, and offering empathy. Increase staff and student understanding of online privacy and ethical behavior, digital footprints, and not-so-anonymous virtual lives. Have students sign an anti-bullying/ cyber bullying pledge where students pledge not to bully others and to speak up if they know someone is being bullied – face-to-face or virtually. Be sure to engage parents in the process, communicate program details, encourage openness and share with them what signs to look for at home and how to talk with their children about the issue.
3. Cyber Environment 101. See the urgent need to prevent online bullying and to support behavioral changes by assigning a high priority to curriculum integration and information resources. Through embedded curriculum and elective classes, advance the profile of responsible online behavior by offering classes that teach online strategies to thwart cyber bullying and useful options to prevent, respond to, and report cyber bullying. Consider offering a video production class where students create engaging videos for posting to YouTube complete with anti-bullying and anti-cyber bullying messages. Another idea: have students collaborate to develop video games incorporating anti-bullying messages.
4. Practice Makes Perfect. Talking about something is one thing, but practice does make perfect. Consider practice situations that emphasize freedom of expression versus individual rights to safety, privacy, and protection from harm. Role-play the different players in cyber bullying – the bully, the victim, the bystander, the staff, the parent, the police. Brainstorm online scenarios that support positive online behavior and reporting online issues. Consider having the school or district’s IT department provide in-service workshops for teachers, counseling staff, and administrators for a better understanding of how the ever-changing cyber environment works.
5. Maintain to Gain. Anti-bullying or cyber bullying principles need repetition and reinforcement. Use rewards and consequences that have direct impacts. Reward the internal values and strengths that promote positive online behavior and deal swiftly with clear, strong, and immediate consequences for a bully’s negative online behavior. Involve parents and the home environment. This is critical to both the motivation of positive online behavior and the prevention of negative online behavior. Consider sponsoring public forums dealing with home Internet use. Recognize that external events and individualized perceptions fuel internal forces – both positive and negative. Repeat your programs each year, and every semester until there are measurable results; then repeat them again. And remember: social media can be your friend. Districts and schools with Facebook and Twitter accounts should regularly share information and resources with strong anti-bully and anti-cyber bullying messages.
6. Do Something About It. The largest challenge to combating bullying is not recognizing that it is happening in the first place. At the National Convention on Bullying, Sean Burke, President of the School Safety Advocacy Council said, “The biggest problem with bully prevention is reporting.” And that goes for students and schools, alike. Consider adding an affordable, anonymous reporting service like the SchoolReach CyberBully Hotline. The service offers students an anonymous, two-way communication tool to report bullying and cyber bullying directly to school officials; those administrators can reply, also anonymously, to provide students the help they need to address the offensive bullying act as a victim or a bystander. For students who remain fearful of retaliation or who are not sure what to do or who to turn to, anonymous reporting services offer students a communication tool to report bullying and cyber bullying safely and immediately.
There will never be a complete “cure” for bullying and cyber bullying behavior. However, with continuous focus, energy, and commitment, there can be successful management of all forms of bullying, with significant minimization of the number of victims:
- Decrease the Intensity of the Impact with clear, strong, and immediate consequences for the bully, with strong support for the victim, and with an environment that encourages empathetic, involved bystanders.
- Shorten the Duration of the Effect by making reporting easy with an anonymous reporting service in place for the victim and peers of the victim.
- Replace the Lack of Control with the power of knowledge and communication – curricula to help discuss issues and to teach strategies that thwart bullying, and a reporting hotline - an avenue for relevant, two-way dialogue via text and voice messaging options - with immediate access to assistance for both victims and bystanders, when circumstances require action.
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
PRWeb News Center May 09, 2012
CyberBully Hotline Announces Addition of Nationally Recognized Bullying Prevention and School Safety Experts
Bullying Reporting Program Offers K-12 Students an Anonymous, Two-Way Communications System to Report Bully Behavior to School Administrators
We can’t just provide a hotline number; to be truly effective we must provide our clients with resources, best practices, and access to the most current strategies available in order to prevent bullying and reduce instances of this intolerable behavior.
St. Louis, Missouri (PRWEB) May 09, 2012
Through targeted articles, timely blog postings, user training materials, and other support activities, the contributors will offer thought-inspiring strategies that empower K-12 school leaders with ways to redirect, and ultimately change, bullying behaviors in schools.
Launched earlier this year, the CyberBully Hotline provides a two-way communications-reporting tool, which allows students to leave voicemail instantly, or to text anonymous messages directly to school officials. Administrators can also reply anonymously in order to provide students the help they need to address the offensive bullying act.
“Unfortunately technology, especially the social media programs, have created an avenue for new bullies, victims, and bystanders to emerge,” said Joe Palacios, CEO of SchoolReach. “We feel it is critically important to arm our educators with the best and brightest experts to shed light on how best to respond to bullying, harassment, and other reports that they might receive stemming from these new sources of bullying behavior. We know we can’t just provide a hotline number; to be truly effective we must provide our clients with resources, best practices, and access to the most current strategies available in order to prevent bullying and reduce instances of this intolerable behavior.”
The CyberBully Hotline contributors possess the following credentials:
Katie Koestner is a national expert on student safety and teen relationship culture. Her most recent article posted to the CyberBully Hotline Resource Center is entitled: Engaging Your Faculty to Address Cyber Bullying. Her career began in 1991 when she became the first victim of date rape to speak out nationally about her experience at The College of William and Mary. As a national expert on student safety and teen relationship culture, Koestner has appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine, The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC Nightly News, CNBC Talk Live, CNN, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, Later Today, MSNBC, Entertainment Tonight, and other national television programs. She has lectured at more than 1,700 schools in North America and has assisted the U.S. Department of Education in developing and providing programs to women in high-risk communities.
Janet Irvine’s career in education – as a teacher, a special education department head, a vice principal, and an advocate for teenagers – led to her current roles serving on her local Police Services Board and the Board of Directors for a community counseling center. On the latter board, one of her roles is to act as a liaison between the board’s On-Trac program for children and youth, ages 12 to 25, who are having difficulty with aggression and Rebound Child & Youth Services, a partner agency offering unique skill-based, positive mentoring and justice system diversion programs. As the author of When Push Comes to Shove Back, a young adult novel highlighting bullying issues, she regularly writes and speaks about high school culture, bullies, and victims with accuracy and sensitivity. She most recently presented a CyberBully Hotline workshop on the 7 Successful Steps to Bystander Engagement.
Dr. Nicole Yetter brings more than 16 years of experience to bear in her work with students, educators, parents, and community members on a host of topics including Internet safety, bullying, substance abuse, decision making, and grief and loss. A featured presenter at the 2012 National Conference on Bullying, Dr. Yetter also acts as an educational consultant for various school districts across the country, is a staff guidance counselor at a large suburban high school in Philadelphia, and is a certified Olweus® trainer.
With the theme “Do Something About It,” the CyberBully Hotline program gives the latest technology-driven solution to those school administrators looking for anti-bullying resources. The CyberBully Hotline meets students where they live – online – by providing a unique local number to which they can text anonymous tips. Messages are routed immediately to designated school staff and the program offers an online interface for full administration control and activity reporting.
To learn more about the CyberBully Hotline, please visit http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/ or call 1-800-420-1479.
About SchoolReach
SchoolReach is the K-12 division of St. Louis-based GroupCast, LLC, a broadcast voice, e-mail, and SMS notification provider. More information about SchoolReach can be found at http://www.schoolreach.com/ and http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
EDITORIAL December 09, 2011
Province must strike a balance with bullying legislation
As someone who spent the bulk of her career as a teacher at Cobourg District Collegiate Institute West, she's come face to face with bullies and their victims, so much so, it's given her enough fodder to write the book, When PUSH Comes to Shove Back. She also serves on the Alnwick/Haldimand Township Police Service Board as a teen liaison and sits on the board for the Northumberland Community Counselling Centre. It must have provided her, and others alike, with some relief recently when the Ontario government introduced new legislation to combat bullying in schools. Ms. Irvine's novel chronicles one day in the life of two Grade 9 boys, one a bully, and the other his victim. She hopes it will act as springboard for conversations about bullying, both in school and at home, especially for parents who don't know how to approach the subject. To teenagers, being the victim of a bully is so hurtful, so devastating, it can drive some of these young people to consider taking their own lives, such as two recent incidents in Pickering and Ottawa, she said. Durham residents were horrified with the tragic story of the young Pickering boy, Mitchell Wilson, who committed suicide on Labour Day, a deeply personal choice he made while fighting a progressive, debilitating disease and while enduring the consequences of bullying. And Mitchell's story coincided with several other high-profile bullying cases which led to suicides this fall. An Ottawa high school student committed suicide after being bullied about his sexuality, and a teen girl in Quebec killed herself after years of peer abuse at her high school. This move by the provincial government underscores the gravity with which bullying is now being viewed -- something far more menacing than kids being kids, as traditional views have held -- and is providing another tool for educators to use. The new bill would allow for expulsions in cases of bullying, where now the limit is temporary suspension. This seemingly new obsession with the effects of bullying is not a media creation. A 2009 study conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found that nearly one in three students had been victims of bullies, while another 25 per cent admitted they had engaged in bullying behaviour at school. The Mitchell Wilsons of the world are the young people behind those statistics, the real boys and girls pushed to their deeply personal limits. And such numbers demand action. And while this new option for Ontario educators is welcome, expelled students -- the vast majority of whom will essentially still be children -- will require alternative forms of education. They'll require appropriate related programs to address, for instance, mental health issues, and those to explore the motivations behind bullying behaviour. In short, punitive measures must be balanced with campaigns to raise awareness and which focus on prevention, while allowing perpetrators to continue building the essential academic foundation required in today's society. The Ontario minority government will require the support of both the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats at Queen's Park to see the bill become legislation. We encourage flexibility and call on all parties to strike a balance that protects the victims of bullying while providing alternatives both for educators and the perpetrators in their classrooms.
-- Northumberland News Thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
Friday, April 6, 2012
When Push Comes to Shove Back - Book Review
By Paul Langhorst, Chief Marketing Officer & Co-Founder of SchoolReach and GroupCast.
February 2012
At the School Safety Advocacy Council’s National Conference on Bullying, I had the opportunity to meet author Janet M. Irvine and pick up her book “When Push Comes to Shove Back.“ It was a chance meeting that happened while I was exploring the exhibit hall. What caught my eye with this book?
First, I love to read. Second, as part of launch of our CyberBully Hotline program I was attending the Bullying Conference to learn as much as I could about bully prevention efforts and programs. So, it was no accident that I had an interest in Janet’s book which was a fictional account of a bully, a victim and a bunch of bystanders who banded together to thwart a ring of drug dealers infecting their school.
The two main characters, Jeremy Wilson – the bully, and Matt Carver – his daily victim, are accidentally thrust together following Jeremy being tricked into becoming an agent for the dealer, Tim Halliday. Fearing he has no way out of the drug circle, Jeremy relents and accepts Matt’s offer for help. Matt uses his fascination with military strategy to plan an elaborate ruse and trap for Tim and his agents.
The book is compelling and fast paced, with short chapters consisting of just a few pages, laid out for easy reading. With the exception of some fantastic cell phone eavesdropping software that is used to track and capture the drug dealers, (which, I am not even sure exists but probably does!) the book is more than believable.
I believe “When Push Comes to Shove Back” would make a great read for middle school aged students as part of a class room project on bully prevention to drive home the point that people are not what they may seem, and that he/she who was once the bully or the victim, could easily have those tables turned.
Enjoy it. I did!
Paul
http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/
http://www.schoolreach.com/
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Bystander Choices are Critical
Janet Irvine is one of four contributing writers providing resources for professional development on the Cyber Bullying Hotline (see http://www.cyberbullyhotline.com/) - the newest initiative of SchoolReach, a company offering automated parent notification solutions to schools across the US - see http://www.schoolreach.com/.
Choices, made many times every day, affect not only our own lives, but also the lives of others. We may not even be aware that we are making choices as we hurry through busy days, but we are. Whether we are students, teachers, or parents, whether we are children, adolescents, or adults, whether we are in schools, at work, or at home, we all ...decide to deal with people, events, and issues in different ways. All of those decisions are choices.
Essentially, our responses can be summarized by four choices. We can choose not to respond at all. We can choose to respond according to how others do. We can choose to respond in a way that will have a negative impact or we can choose to engage in a positive way. Those are the choices. No one is immune. If you are alive, you make these choices many times, every day.
By definition, bystanders are disengaged. They are on the sidelines, silent, watching, not involved. Most have chosen not to respond; many have chosen to respond by following others around them. In a bullying situation, however, bystanders have chosen to play a negative role, whether that choice is conscious or not, because bystanders provide an audience for the bully and silently promote the bully’s behavior.
When bullying is physical or verbal – when it is something observable – being a bystander requires no action at all. Cyber bullying, on the other hand, invites active bystanders – a new level of disengagement introduced by the existence of cyber space. One click adds to the bystander population and expands the scope of the bullying; it gives the bully a larger audience and increases his or her influence and control. The effects are catastrophic. The bystander suddenly joins the bully, and being a bystander no longer means a choice not to become involved - it means being an anonymous bully.
Choices are funny things. Sometimes they are obvious – choosing what to wear, choosing to smoke or to experiment with drugs – and sometimes they are subtle – not telling a friend that he or she has bad breath, or walking past someone who is obviously upset. Yet two things are unavoidable. Choices – big or small - always have consequences and choices – negative or positive – always carry responsibility.
Bystanders have the potential to escalate bullying. They also have the power to stop it. Yet they are often ignored in our search for solutions. Rather than focus totally on the bully and the victim, prevention measures must include the people who, by their decisions not to be overtly involved, choose to allow bullying to thrive. Students, schools, parents – indeed, our society – must focus on the consequences of disengagement and on the responsibility that accompanies apathy.
Essentially, our responses can be summarized by four choices. We can choose not to respond at all. We can choose to respond according to how others do. We can choose to respond in a way that will have a negative impact or we can choose to engage in a positive way. Those are the choices. No one is immune. If you are alive, you make these choices many times, every day.
By definition, bystanders are disengaged. They are on the sidelines, silent, watching, not involved. Most have chosen not to respond; many have chosen to respond by following others around them. In a bullying situation, however, bystanders have chosen to play a negative role, whether that choice is conscious or not, because bystanders provide an audience for the bully and silently promote the bully’s behavior.
When bullying is physical or verbal – when it is something observable – being a bystander requires no action at all. Cyber bullying, on the other hand, invites active bystanders – a new level of disengagement introduced by the existence of cyber space. One click adds to the bystander population and expands the scope of the bullying; it gives the bully a larger audience and increases his or her influence and control. The effects are catastrophic. The bystander suddenly joins the bully, and being a bystander no longer means a choice not to become involved - it means being an anonymous bully.
Choices are funny things. Sometimes they are obvious – choosing what to wear, choosing to smoke or to experiment with drugs – and sometimes they are subtle – not telling a friend that he or she has bad breath, or walking past someone who is obviously upset. Yet two things are unavoidable. Choices – big or small - always have consequences and choices – negative or positive – always carry responsibility.
Bystanders have the potential to escalate bullying. They also have the power to stop it. Yet they are often ignored in our search for solutions. Rather than focus totally on the bully and the victim, prevention measures must include the people who, by their decisions not to be overtly involved, choose to allow bullying to thrive. Students, schools, parents – indeed, our society – must focus on the consequences of disengagement and on the responsibility that accompanies apathy.
Northumberland News November 2011
Grafton novelist tackles bullying problem
Former teacher pens book to shatter shroud of silence
November 2011
Janet Irvine bullying book. COBOURG -- Janet Irvine, of Grafton, wrote When PUSH Comes to Shove Back, a young-adult novel exploring bullying-related issues in a day in the life of two Grade 9 boys. November 30, 2011 Karen Longwell / Northumberland News
Janet Irvine of Grafton knows teens. Ms. Irvine spent the bulk of her career at Cobourg District Collegiate Institute West, first as an English teacher, then as a special education teacher and department head as well as a stint in the acting vice principal role, where she regularly came face to face with bullies and their victims. She also serves on the Alnwick/Haldimand Township Police Service Board, acting as a teen liaison with police and sits on the board for the Northumberland Community Counselling Centre.
"I have gained better appreciation for some of the reasons young people turn to bullying," said Ms. Irvine. "I came to realize that the bullies need just as much help as the individuals they bullied."
Her novel, 'When PUSH Comes to Shove Back', chronicles one day in the life of two Grade 9 boys, one, a bully, and the other, his victim. Ms. Irvine said the book is a page-turning, action-packed novel with characters who explore intimidation, manipulation, drugs, and other bullying-related issues. Written for young adult readers, "at a level Grade 9 students will have no trouble with," it is an adventure story, with true-to-life characters, she explained.
"There are some swear words in it, but the characters wouldn't ring true without them," she said.
In her dealings with teens, Ms. Irvine said kids will talk about issues in a book quite openly, "much more so than discussing their own experiences, especially in a group setting."
"It is my hope that the book will serve as a spring-board for conversations about bullying, both in school and at home, especially for parents who don't know how to approach the subject," she said. "Although bullying seems to be more out in the open recently, much of the problem is still shrouded in silence. There are still teens that bully and teen victims that suffer in silence."
To teenagers, being the victim of a bully is so hurtful, so devastating, that it can drive some of these young people to consider taking their own lives, such as two recent incidents in Pickering and Ottawa.
Without the life experience to put bullying incidents into perspective, it is impossible for many teens to "suck it up" or "ignore it" as sometimes suggested by well-meaning parents, said Ms. Irvine.
For more information about 'When PUSH Comes to Shove Back', call Ms. Irvine at 905-349-2570, e-mail alzwellthatenzwell@gmail.com or visit http://www.whenpushcomestoshoveback.com/.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)