Students ‘sexting’ pose problems
By Michael Rizzo
Buffalo News
The principal of Lewiston-Porter Middle School recently suspended several of his male students who passed along a sexually illicit video—created on a cell phone — after school hours.
Principal Vincent Del’Osso investigated the students upon receiving reports of their behavior, Lew-Port Superintendent Chris Roser said, and police were notified.
“Nothing shocks me anymore,” Roser said, “but it’s a disappointment. And it’s disappointing that it keeps happening younger and younger. It’s just as vile and disgusting as it would be for older people.”
It seems the days of passing love notes that say, “Check yes or no” are on the way out, school officials said, and the advent of sexy-texts, or sexting, is posing a new batch of problems for administrators.
‘Sexting’ surges nationwide, and it’s not just teens doing it
By STEPHANIE STEINBERG
Daily Record
Teen “sexting” is on the rise, but teens aren’t the only age group sending naked pictures of themselves to others via text message.
In a new survey of 1,017 teens and 1,049 parents nationwide, 28 percent of the parents say they engage in sexting, including sending texts with sexual content or nude pictures of themselves.
Charles Sophy, a child and family psychiatrist in Beverly Hills, Calif., says many of his patients who are parents engage in sexting, and not always with their partners.
“It’s a new and exciting way, for lack of a better term, to explore and express themselves when marriages are in bad spots,” says Sophy, who is on the advisory council for LG Text Ed, a program of LG Mobile Phones, sponsor of the survey.
Schools and parents have a role in ending cyberbullying
LACK OF MATURITY, lack of supervision, and technology that can transmit messages instantly to millions of people: This is the volatile cocktail that lies at the root of cyberbullying. Today’s high school and middle school students have been texting, e-mailing, instant messaging and posting on Facebook since they could reach a keyboard. But when this extensive technological knowledge combines with the raging hormones, limited impulse control and failure to understand consequences that mark the teenage years, the results can be devastating.
Cyberbullies can be popular “mean girls” or tech-savvy loners who use their skills to wreak havoc on a social hierarchy that excludes them. Bullying can be intentional or inadvertent — a message accidentally forwarded, a remark taken out of context. It can be a minor annoyance or, drawing in strangers through hate speech or provocative images, it can escalate far beyond the schoolyard. Because of all these factors, it is difficult to craft a one-size-fits-all rule or policy.
Cyberbullying and sexting bills are signed into law
Bills making it a crime for one youth to send suggestive electronic pictures to another or to use chat rooms and other computer-assisted methods to threaten or bully a person younger than 17 have been signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal and will take effect Aug. 15.
House Bill 1259 by Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport, is designed to crack down on “cyberbullying,” while House Bill 1357 by Rep. Damon Baldone, D-Houma, outlaws “sexting,” or sending suggestive photos by e-mail, computer or other electronic means.
Burrell’s bill makes it a crime to send harassing or abusive messages meant to “torment or intimidate” anyone under 17.
Cyberbullying is so bad that it drives some kids to suicide
The arrest of a young boy at my kids’ elementary school just before school let out for the summer caused quite stir in the community. The 12-year-old was taken into custody after apparently bringing a “hit list” of students he reportedly intended to “kill, injure, or let go.”
Authorities, tipped off about the sixth grader’s notebook list by another student, discovered it in his locker. Sources say the journal was eloquently written but appeared to fall apart toward the end as the boy evidently contemplated suicide.
Police who interviewed the boy, new to the school district, found him to be very articulate, polite, and well-spoken. Like so many other children, he supposedly came from a broken home where the environment was presumably as stressful as that in school.
4320 E. 5th Avenue • Columbus, Ohio 43219
1-866-323-0480
BlackBerry™ is a trademark of Research In Motion Limited. Windows Mobile™ is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation Symbian™ is a registered mark of Symbian Ltd. SMobile Systems Inc. is not endorsed,sponsored or affiliated with any of the respective companies