HALF of Australian school students have bullied another chikd, while 70 per cent say that bullying is a moderate to extremely serious problem in their school.
The results of a national survey of 1000 students from Years 7 to 10 who had just undergone an anti-bullying seminar suggest the problem could be far greater than previous research has found.
Social analyst Mark McCrindle said an analysis of results from the largest study into schoolyard bullying revealed the impact of the problem on children.
The suburban Philadelphia teenager who has accused his high school of spying on him in his home using the camera in his school-issued laptop called on school district officials to hand over copies of all photographs snapped by students’ MacBooks.
“Our counsel has requested immediate access to all webcam pictures and screenshots to determine whether the school district’s representation to the number of times it was used, and the purposes for which it was used, is accurate,” said Blake Robbins late Wednesday. Robbins read a prepared statement in front of reporters and television cameras outside his Penn Valley, Pa. home.
By Robert Colvile
Published: 7:57AM GMT 26 Feb 2010
On September 8 2006, a new item was added to Google Video in Italy. It showed an autistic schoolboy in Turin being abused, physically and verbally, by his classmates. On Wednesday, three executives from Google – who had never worked in Italy, or had any idea of the video’s existence before it was deleted two months later – were found guilty (in absentia) of invading the teenager’s privacy, and given six-month suspended sentences by an Italian court, after charges were brought by a local Down’s syndrome charity.
The outrage was immediate. David Drummond, the company’s chief legal officer, and one of those convicted, claimed the ruling “poses a grave danger to the continued freedom and operation of the many internet services that users around the world – including many Italians – have come to rely on”. A coalition of supporters was quickly assembled ahead of the inevitable appeal, including Index on Censorship, Reporters Without Borders, and the US government.
Why the fuss?
Hermitage School Board on Tuesday authorized appealing an appellate court’s decision in the Justin Layshock case.
Layshock was a Hickory High School student suspended for creating an unflattering profile of his then principal, Eric Trosch, in December 2005 on the MySpace social networking Web site.
Layshock and his parents, Donald and Cheryl, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the school board in federal court and a judge agreed that the district had violated Layshock’s free-speech rights by disciplining him for a profile Layshock created on his grandmother’s computer.
(NOTE: Sadly, this is what it will probably take to see workplace bullying legislation taken seriously by lawmakers. Could Jodie Bostick be America’s Brodie Panlock? Thanks to Workplace News for posting this. – Mike)
By Carol Forsloff, DigitalJournal.com
In Wisconsin one woman was so distraught from constant bullying by her supervisor she killed herself. Friends, families and interested people have, as a consequence, banded together and are working towards a law to prohibit bullying that endangers health. In a number of states there have been 17 cases prompting citizens to ask for anti-discrimination laws that impact the workplace, specifically how people are treated that could have a negative impact on their well-being and performance.
According to the proponents of new legislation, the proposed bills encompass behaviors so severe that a victim’s health is seriously affected. This means, as brochures point out in advocacy statements, “The perpetrator is more than a harmless, laughable jerk. Those health-harming bullies are walking occupational health hazards.”
(NOTE: This is a horrendous decision that could have international ramifications that threaten free expression on the Internet. Hopefully the conviction will be overturned on appeal. It’s impossible to overstate the impact and danger of this decision! – Mike)
An Italian court has convicted three Google executives in a trial over a video showing an autistic teenager being bullied.
The Google employees were accused of breaking Italian law by allowing the video to be posted online.
Judge Oscar Magi absolved the three of defamation but convicted them of privacy violations.
The UK’s former Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said the case gave privacy laws a “bad name”.
The three employees, Peter Fleischer, David Drummond and George De Los Reyes, received suspended six-month sentences, while a fourth defendant, product manager Arvind Desikan, was acquitted.
David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google and one of those convicted, said he was “outraged” by the decision.
MILAN (Reuters) – Verdicts were expected on Wednesday on Google executives charged over a bullying video posted on the company’s Italian website, in a case that could set a precedent for Internet content responsibility.
The ruling comes as Italy’s government seeks to impose restrictions on hate pages on social networks and as YouTube, owned by Google, is locked in a legal battle with Mediaset, controlled by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Italy’s largest private broadcaster wants 500 million euros ($680 million) in damages from YouTube for copyright infringement.
In the current trial Milan public prosecutors accused three current managers and one former Google executive of defamation and failure to exercise control over personal data.
The case stems from an incident in 2006 when students at an Italian school filmed and then uploaded a clip to Google Video showing them bullying a schoolmate with Down’s syndrome.
(Another article on the recent study out of Sweden. – Mike)
The internet means that they can be targeted round-the-clock, researchers warned.
Experts claim that cyberbullying can be more damaging than conventional teasing because perpetrators can remain anonymous and therefore make more hurtful claims.
Research in Sweden also suggests that social networking sites, such as Facebook, have become a new and destructive arena in which youngsters are taunted by their school peers.
By Matthew Campbell
Story Published: Feb 22, 2010 at 6:29 PM EST
Story Updated: Feb 22, 2010 at 10:25 PM EST
“Principal Dan Smith has completed disciplinary proceedings with students involved in the harassment of Phoebe Prince at South Hadley High School. Initially, his investigation focused on a small group of girls who had been identified by other students as participants in acts of name calling and bullying. The group actually consisted of two different subgroups. The first subgroup was responsible for a pair of name-calling incidents that occurred approximately one week before Phoebe’s death. Those incidents were brought to the principal’s attention when they occurred. He took immediate disciplinary action with the students, which was effective in ending their participation in further acts of bullying.
By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff
Daily News Tribune
Posted Feb 23, 2010 @ 12:01 AM
WALTHAM — Instead of heading to their first class yesterday to learn arithmetic or reading skills, Fitzgerald School students picked up valuable lessons on identifying types of bullying, and the difference between “tattling” and “good telling,” said Superintendent Peter Azar.
“It went very well. Kids learned what the major types of bullying are: Dirty looks, cyberbullying” and making threats for example, Azar said.
The anti-bullying effort follows police filing of charges earlier this month against an 11-year-old Fitzgerald girl for allegedly assaulting students with her foot, a locker door and scissors.
Recent Comments