Students bullied online were not aware of it
By Greg Pearson

Lisa Billings/Chesterfield Observer Bullying is no longer limited to the playground. Now it's gone online as children become more computer-savvy.

More than one-fourth of the students who took a survey by SAFE (Substance Abuse Free Environment) reported they had been a victim of cyber-bullying, though most of them didn't call it that.

Asked if they had "ever received a threatening e-mail, text message or instant message?," 26.2 percent replied "yes." That meets the definition of cyber-bullying, according to SAFE's Executive Director Wayne Frith, who defined it as "anyone who belittles or makes threats in an attempt to manipulate a student." The questions, he said, "were pretty broadly drawn so as not to just cover sexual material or physical threats."

But when asked directly by one of the other survey questions ("have you ever been a victim of cyber-bullying?"), just 10.9 percent responded "yes."

The responses to five cyber-bullying questions were recently released as part of the results from a SAFE survey conducted last November of students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades. About 3,350 county students in the three grade levels took the survey.

Seniors were more likely to have been bullied online - probably because they were older and likely to have spent more time on the Internet. SAFE hasn't yet analyzed the data to determine if there were differences among cyber-bullying victims based on sex or race.

Another question asked if they had "observed materials online that would suggest or threaten violence?," with 35.7 percent responding "yes."

The cyber-bullying questions were added to the SAFE survey at the request of Superintendent Marcus Newsome. He became concerned after hearing other superintendents at a conference in St. Louis say cyber-bullying had become more prevalent than regular bullying.

"I was surprised at the number of children who said they felt threatened or were made to feel uncomfortable by people sending them things over the Internet," said Frith.

Though students receive Internet safety training developed by the school system's technology staff, many students indicated in the survey they didn't know "who to go to for help" if they were cyber-bullied. Overall, 39.1 percent answered "no" to that question with a higher percent of seniors (41.5 percent) saying they didn't know how to respond compared to 34.3 percent of eighth graders.

"Even 11 percent is too high," commented Newsome. "We want to assure that our students are as safe as they can be. We expect our administrative offices to develop strategies to eliminate cyber-bullying. There are clear codes of conduct with clear consequences for bullying."

Another question asked if "someone shared personal information or images of you online without your permission?" "Yes" was the response of 18.8 percent of the students.

Because of adult supervision at school, "most of the dangerous behaviors for our students occur outside of the school environment," Newsome added. He believes physical bullying of students is most likely to occur in school restrooms or going to or from schools. Each middle and high school has a school resource officer (a Chesterfield police officer) assigned to it.

Newsome plans on including cyber-bullying questions for the SAFE survey next year. The cyber-bullying questions this time were part of a larger survey SAFE conducted on teen substance abuse. To learn about that portion of the survey, visit www.chesterfieldobserver.com and search for "teen substance abuse" in our archives.