Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, oh my! Cyber-bullying has become an epidemic across America due to the sheer amount of social media outlets available. Social media outlets encourage America’s youth to share their likes, dislikes, appearance, political views and more. While this can be a healthy way for teens to express themselves, it is often abused as a platform for bullies to gain an upper hand over their victims.

Cyber-bullying has become a powerful method of harassment because it allows people to hide behind a computer-screen and most likely say things to others that they wouldn’t say in person. People can now also hide behind the pseudonym “anonymous” on websites like Ask.Fm. This is making it harder to track down cyber-bullies as the only way to find out who ‘anonymous’ might be is to track the IP address of the computer the message was sent from (which can only be done by a hacker or authorized members of the police force) and even then, the result may only provide a lead.

Cases of cyber-bullying do not only cause poor performance and poor attendance in schools, but also cause personal isolation from friends and family and exclusion from peers… Mrs. Deppen of the counseling office says, “I know these things happen but I haven’t had a lot of students come to me about it, unfortunately. However, that is not the perspective I want to give because I know it happens a lot.” It is cases like these that all too often lead to self-harm and suicide because students refuse to reach out for help.

Ms. Davis of the counseling office says, “I think students aren’t coming to us because they fear there will be no consequences for the person doing the bullying because it’s online and the nature of counseling is face to face. They are worried that there’s nothing we can do to help. However, these issues can’t be handled correctly if students are afraid to talk to their counselors about issues they’re facing with peers. We are here for you! We are here for this exact reason!” Students need to begin feeling more comfortable coming to a trusted adult in order to prevent permanent and irreversible damages…A few infamous cases of cyber-bullying going from bad to worse due to lack of intervention include: The Ryan Halligan Case of 1989-2003, The Megan Meier Case of 1992-2006, and The Tyler Clementi Case of 1991-2010.

Ryan Halligan was a student enrolled in a special education program due to his learning, speech and motor impairments. He had a bully for some time but managed to befriend him, or so he thought. When he shared an embarrassing story at school, the bully decided to turn on him once again. He started a rumor that Ryan was gay. His peers joined in on the bullying and decided to pretend to befriend him in order to gain knowledge of other embarrassing stories Ryan had to tell. One girl in particular shared the stories Ryan had entrusted her with on various social media platforms. In lieu of the event, Ryan hung himself in the bathroom of his family home.

Megan Meier met a boy on Myspace who found her pretty and offered his friendship to her. After a lifelong battle with ADD, depression and self-esteem issues, Megan was thrilled to have met a boy who found her attractive and desired to be her friend. After some time spent communicating with the boy, he lost interest. He soon began sending her hateful messages rather than simply discontinuing the friendship. He eventually even told her, “the world would be a better place without you.” Megan was so crushed that she proceeded to hang herself in her bedroom closet.

When Tyler Clementi began sharing his sexual orientation with peers and family members the summer after his high school graduation, he was welcomed with open arms. However, upon his college attendance at Rutgers University, his roommate showed he he felt differently. He filmed Tyler kissing another boy in their dorm room and proceeded to share it on various social media platforms. Tyler found all of this out over Twitter. He felt his chance at making friends at college was ruined by this heinous act and committed suicide by jumping off of the George Washington Bridge.

These stories are just a few of many cases of intense cyber-bullying resulting in suicide. With knowledge of the damage cyber-bullying can cause, no amount of online teasing or discrimination should be taken lightly.

Unfortunately, a few cases have begun to present themselves at Whitney Young this year. An anonymous Whitney Young student of ‘17 said, “I cyber-bully by being passive aggressive and pretending I’m just joking. Sometimes it is so easy to do it that I don’t even know I’m doing it until I’ve really hurt someone. I think this is a great message to share because it is a mistake we all fall victim to making at least once in awhile. This will definitely make me more conscious of my actions in the future.”

Coming from such a diverse environment, one would think all Whitney Young students would pride themselves on being accepting of individuals of all races, capabilities and religious backgrounds. However, a group chat was created this year among Whitney Young sophomores that condemned individuals because of their different capabilities, races and religious views. Luckily, the students were disciplined with a suspension lasting one to three days depending on the student’s level of involvement.

Ethan Wilen of ‘17 spoke on this incident and said, “We attend such a diverse school and get to meet people from so many different backgrounds so it’s very insensitive to release comments like those. It doesn’t matter if you think you’re just joking, people take those type of comments offensively. We should encourage others to have pride in who they are. Monitor your thoughts and think of others. We’ve been given this great environment to learn in and we should not destroy it.”

Mrs. Brownridge of the counseling suite provides some additional tips to avoid cyberbullying… “Having a few or even just one friend you really trust will change the whole dynamic of how you react in the event of being cyberbullied. If students can stop being bystanders when they see or hear of bullying happening to their friends or even just happening to fellow students, telling one of us can make a major difference in the prevention and protection against bullies, online and in person.”

Dr. Kenner agrees with Ethan’s statements and adds, “I don’t think cyberbullying is a major or frequent problem at Whitney Young but it is becoming more of problem in general…Students are using more advanced technology and devices making it easier to hide their identities…As a school, we are beginning to address this issue more and more. We are not going to tolerate this kind of nonsense. We have the faculty, staff and resources to find out who is doing what. Mr. Soto and Mr. Swanson are our gurus of technology. We have also had the police force involved before to help us get the information we need to identify students causing problems.” Take this as a lesson from your principal, counselors and fellow students before sending off that text, tweet, or post that might hurt or offend someone.  

(From left to right) Lilly Holmes of ‘17, Sophie Putrim of ‘18, Quinn Gorman of ‘17

Photo courtesy of Maggie Rivas of ‘17