Cyber-bullying: An Emerging Challenge in Schools
Honors student examines ways technology is used as a weapon among schoolchildren

Student researcher Katie Jankowski

Bullying among students is nothing new, but with easy access to new technology, the problem has reached beyond pushing and shoving and calling each other names. A different form is emerging: cyber-bullying.

Because it is a recent phenomenon, there is little solid information the prevalence of cyber-bullying. Katie Jankowski, an Honors Program student at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, is working on a thesis to collect that information.

Jankowski, 21, describes cyber-bullying as using any type of technology to threaten or intimidate others, including popular social networking Web sites like MySpace.

Jankowski said harassment can range from making fun of how a person looks to threats of physical harm. And it can be difficult to trace the source because some students will sign on and post comments pretending to be someone else. Text messaging from a cell phone can be another form of cyberbullying.

“This can have a devastating effect,” she said. “Sometimes you don’t even know who’s doing it and that’s why it can be dangerous.”

Her research project will include surveying students and their teachers and counselors at middle and high schools, which she plans to do early next semester. She is looking to gather information from national and local samples and find trends in how often cyberbullying occurs and how school performance is affected.

Ultimately, the data will be used to shed light on this increasing challenge to schools and to put forth some ideas on how to handle such situations.

“I don’t think a lot of teachers are prepared to deal with it” because they may come up against legal issues, said Jankowski, an adolescence education major with a concentration in social studies. childhood education major. “It’s very hard to monitor.” Teachers may be concerned about whether they have a right to intervene if the threat was not generated from a school computer, and tracking text messages can be tricky.

Jankowski, a Michigan native, is being mentored by Andrea McLoughlin, an associate professor of education, and Nancy Frye, an assistant professor of psychology. She says completion of her thesis will put her well on the way toward a career in secondary education.

Posted: December 3, 2007