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There is an increasing amount of violence and hate sweeping thru the schools not only in Long Island but in the world. There are also difficulties in initiating interventention at the school district level. It is very difficult to understand the intensity of this aberrant behavior since the schools are not obligated to report incidents of this nature. From time to time we will see a tragic event in the local newspaper but by that time the incident will have had tragic or deadly outcome on students, children, parents, teachers and our community. Parents: Cyber Bullying Led to Teen's Suicide Good Morning America| ABC News December 5, 2007 Megan Meier's Parents Now Want Measures to Protect Children Online The parents of a 13-year-old girl who believe their daughter's October 2006 suicide was the result of a cruel cyber hoax are pushing for measures to protect other children online. Tina and Ron Meier, who are now separated and plan to divorce, have taken up the cause of Internet safety after a bizarre twist in their daughter Megan Meier's death. The mother of a former friend of Megan's allegedly created a fictitious profile in order to gain Megan's trust and learn what Megan was saying about.. There is an emerging threat to our youth in the form of cyber-bullying. Cyber bullying is the use of electronic devices, electronic communication and information, such as e-mail, instant messaging (IM), text messages, cell phones, pagers and web sites, to send or post cruel or harmful messages or images about an individual or a group. Cyber-bullying is a freer form of bullying than traditional physical or name-calling as the individual responsible can be anonymous. Also, unlike standard bullying, there is no respite or refuge for the victims since cyber bullying can go on 24-hours a day and invade a victim’s home, school, community and any computer location. WASHINGTON DC, August 17 — As America’s kids prepare to go back to school, national law enforcement leaders released a poll showing that one in three teens and one in six preteens have been victims of cyber bullying. The leaders estimate that more than 13 million children aged 6 to 17 were victims of cyber bullying. More than 2 million of those victims told no one about the attacks. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Charlotte Chief of Police Darrel Stephens released the poll and called on every school in America to have a proven bullying prevention program. Key findings of the poll of 1,000 kids nationwide were: • One-third of all teens (12-17) and one-sixth of children ages 6-11 have had mean, threatening or embarrassing things said about them online. • 10 percent of the teens and four percent of the younger children were threatened online with physical harm. • 16 percent of the teens and preteens who were victims told no one about it. About half of children ages 6-11 told their parents. Only 30 percent of older kids told their parents. • Preteens were as likely to receive harmful messages at school (45 percent) as at home (44 percent). Older children received 30 percent of harmful messages at school and 70 percent at home. • 17 percent of preteens and seven percent of teens said they were worried about bullying as they start a new school year. As parents we have an obligation and responsibility toward our children. It is evident that there are not adequate local and state laws to protect children from cyber-bullying in schools, in the privacy of one's home and our communities. Initially these networking facilities were available primarily to people working in high-tech environments, but in the 1990s the spread of applications like e-mail and the World Wide Web, combined with the development of cheap, fast networking technologies like Ethernet and ADSL saw computer networking become almost ubiquitous. In fact, the number of computers that are networked is growing phenomenally. As early as 1999 measures have been taken to eliminate bullying with little success and now the internet access has increased the opportunity for students, children as well as adults to commit acts of bullying in a much larger format that can spread in small communities, in our nation and throughout world. March Cherokee County, Georgia, United States Brian Head, 15 1 dead 15-year old Brian Head shot and killed himself during his high school economics class at Etowah High School. Head had been a longtime target for bullies because of his weight and thick glasses. His father, Bill, subsequently successfully lobbied for a law that criminalized bullying and required schools to alert parents of bullied children. In 1994, Brian Head, a 15-year-old high school sophomore from Woodstock, Georgia, pulled out a gun and fatally shot himself in the temple in front of his classmates after spending years as the butt of their jokes. His last words were, "I'm tired of it." Head was tired of the taunting remarks he received from other students because of his weight. According to the Atlanta Journal, a classmate of Head's said, "People made fun of him all the time; you could tell it hurt. But he never said anything. He got beat up a lot." His father, Bill, pushed for a new state law that makes bullying a crime and requires school officials to alert parents if it happens. This law was signed into effect in March 1999. ( I am still researching and trying to locate the law predicated on the death of Brian Head, may he rest in peace. NEW YORK SENATE BILL NO. S 1925 - 2003This bill was a possibility in 2003 and 2004 but it's dead again. Call your lawmakers and ask them to think of the kids and stop the bullies in the schools of New York (I am still searching for information on the law mentioned in this article.) Although the Jokela school shooting is in Finland, it is an example of the present and imminent dangers associated with cyber-hate and cyber-bullying over the internet that is spreading throughout the USA and the world. In the investigation by the police it was confirmed that he had been a victim of school bullying for years.[17] Pekka-Eric Auvinen uploaded a home-made video entitled "Jokela High School Massacre - 11/7/2007" to You Tube announcing the "massacre" hours prior to the shooting. KMFDM's "Stray Bullet" was used as background music. Videos of him shooting his new gun had been uploaded weeks prior to the shooting. Several hours after the event, You Tube suspended some videos belonging to the username Sturmgeist89 due to relations with the shootings. His previous You Tube account name was "naturalselector89", which he used from March until it was suspended in October. Many of his videos were about other shootings and violent incidents, including the Columbine High School massacre, the Waco Siege, the Tokyo sarin gas attack, and bombing during the Iraq invasion. According to his YouTube profile, his interests were natural selection and hate for humanity. He did not want anything or anyone to be blamed for the shooting, and had planned it "in [his] own head".[24] He left a media package on Rapidshare, a hosting site, explaining his actions and his motives for the shooting. It includes details of the attack, a manifesto, his "loves & hates", some images of himself and a video of him firing a handgun. "I am prepared to fight and die for my cause," read a posting by Sturmgeist. "I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection." Sturmgeist means "storm spirit" in German. Several newspapers have suggested similarities between and inspirations for Auvinen's actions in the Columbine shootings. Auvinen's YouTube videos included footage related to Columbine. The KMFDM track used in his video, "Stray Bullet", was also used on the website of Columbine shooter Eric Harris. The Meier's daughter's tragic death may she rest in peace and my personal encounter with cyberhate against my child has enlightened me to the dangers and threat of cyberhate. Incidents such as the needless tragic Columbine events and all the violent events that have followed should be a clear indication that something is gravely wrong in the school systems, our communities and the world. Columbine High School Massacre April 20, 1999, Bath School disaster - May 18, 1927, Dawson College shooting - September 13, 2006, Platte Canyon High School shooting - September 27, 2006, Amish school shooting - October 2, 2006, Virginia Tech massacre - April 16, 2007, Jokela school shooting - November 7, 2007 We must be extremely diligent in our efforts to have a safe environment for children in the schools, home, community and the world. This is a serious issue in which there will be an ongoing campaign addressed to the community of the Town of Islip in Long Island NY to adapt an ordinance in which cyber-bullying and cyber-hate thru the means of electronic devices, electronic communication and information, such as cell phones, instant messaging (IM), text messaging, pagers, text messaging, e-mails, websites will be a misdemeanor. An exemplary action set by the City of Dardeene, Missouri who has adapted local town ordinance# 1128 should set precedence in our community and nation. The issues have attracted lawmakers in the states of Oregon, Washington, New Jersey and other states that have introduced bills or instituted programs designed to reduce cyber-bullying. This petition is open to the residents of the Town of Islip and residents of Long Island in favor of adapting an ordinance to address cyber-bullying. Thank You
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