Cyber-Bullying Video Says it All

I remember growing up there were bullies in my school. They might steal your lunch, shove you or call you names. While harmful, these actions rarely, if ever, led to someone contemplating taking his or her own life. Things were so tame relatively speaking back then that we would answer bullies by saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never harm me." Just imagine a bullied person saying that to a bullier today.

Bullying is exacerbated today because of the ease with which a video is posted and hurtful comments made, and the immediacy of it going viral. The bullied individual has to contend with the humiliation because virtually everyone in school sees it immediately on their camera phones. 

Cyber-bullying threatens the civility in our schools and has led to suicide attempts and actual suicides, as I have previously blogged about this week. It has been said that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Here is a link to a wonderful YouTube video on this topic. It should be required viewing in all schools starting with middle school.

  Blog posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on August 19, 2011