THIS JUST IN!

A terrible story of an 11 year old boy who has just taken his life due to bullying.

Again regardless of whether it is online or in school, the horrors that confront Carl's family and friends based on the decisions of children who relentlessly bullied another, Carl. It is with great sadness that in this world of fight and war, even within our schools, where students should find hope and safety, there is a comparable war they too are fighting. It saddens me to hear of another death, another "bullicide" that could have and should have been prevented. My heart goes out to the Walker Family and I wish Carl the peace and happiness he deserves.


A Side Note:
This story was sent to me this morning after I had just finished by professional blog for my Technology for School Administrators course I am taking through Loyola College in Maryland. With all of the research and reading I have been doing on cyberbullying and whether or not schools should get involved, I am beginning to become extremely irritated with the incidents that have been occurring for the past two months. Within these last few months, I have read of at least 4 incidents similar to the one above. I guess society is recognizing that this is occuring more frequently and the national news is not highlighting these horrid stories. Something needs to be done.

One option I personally have been thinking about is that students and children under the age of 18 should have monitors of their accounts and pages. If we regulate driving ages, drinking ages, Rated R movie ages, then we certainly should be able to regulate webpage space ages...right? I am in the beginning stages of brainstorming how to fix this issue and how to carry out the idea of regulating behind a computer screen. The hidden identity of predators, whether a sexual predator or a harassing classmate predator, the same regulations need to be put into place. If children feel they are being monitored, things may start to change. Sexual predators online are getting tons of TV time with many different types of ways to catch them, as they should be, but we need this for bullies too. We need to clear the web space of rude, nasty, and sick children who think it is okay to hurt others through the computer screen.

I am strongly disgusted by the comments I have been reading on YouTube when I typed in "CyberBullying" to the search. There are even rude remarks about the videos submitted on kids who have committed suicide. Some saying about how "they [those who have committed suicide] are pathetic for letting something so silly ruin their whole life"...kids just don't get the severity. Adults need to teach them the severity. I understand the difficult situation that is caused with parents who are older than the tech generation and have a hard time adapting, but these are lives on the line. Get it together, and start making a difference!

More to come...