Schools have an extremely important preventative role to play in cyberbullying because they are theÌýmain arena for student interactions. However, the boundaries of their role are notÌýalways clear. Bullying that takes place at school may now easily spill over to the Internet, outside of schools’ borders.

• When such incidents of cyberbullying happen, when should schools intervene?
• How can schools judge whether a threat made by a student is real or not?
• When they have a doubt, is it legal for schools to search students cell phones or does it infringe on their privacy?

These issues are tackled in the following Define the Line issue paper, which includes a review ofÌýfour important North American cases that set precedents in the past, and discusses whether, in recent cases, schools that directly intervened with students did so legally or in violation of the students’ fundamental rights. The article ends by presenting a proactive approach for schools to foster digital citizenship as opposed to introducing zero-tolerance policies in the classroom. By accessing the full version of the article, you will be introduced to suggestions and solutions to engage students in interactive activities that are positive and proactive rather than negative and inciting the bullying of others.

For our full overview of the topic please download our .pdf ( cyberbullying_-_boundaries_of_school_responsibility.pdf), also accessible on your portable device.

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Silvia Neagu

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