Journal 8

Journal 8: "Should Schools Be Held Responsible for Cyber bullying?"

Bogacz, R, & Gordillo, M. (2011, March/April). Point/counterpoint: Should Schools be Held Responsible for Cyber bullying?. Learning & Leading , 38(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Point_Counterpoint_Should_Schools_Be_Held_Responsible_for_Cyberbullying.aspx

this site presents different views in an argument as Renee Bogacz argues that schools play a huge part in the direction cyber bulling goes. Bogacz has been a teacher for over twenty years and believes that educators and parents must work together to protect students. By playing an active part in the discontinuation of cyber bulling, we can witness its dimishment as we move forward as a culture.

Bogacz’s theory is challenged by Miguel Gómez Gordillo, an IT director for the Ascoiaión para el Desarollo Educativo (which manages K-12 schools in Guatemala). He argues that schools cannot be held responsible for cyber bulling. Instead Gomez believes that parents and society are to blame. He links the number of cyber bulling cases to lack of parental love in weak home environments. His solution is to establish a close knit communication family while simultaneously developing a plan for these families. He believes a healthy family will solve everything!

Whose argument do you support and why? I believe teachers and administrators are responsible for ending cyber bullying but it is equally the parent’s responsibility to keep their kids from being bullied. Educators must prevent bullying before it happens while parents must monitor it at home. No one person is to blame for cyber bullying.

Do you have any personal experience with cyber bullying? If so, please explain. When I was in junior high girls would bully me from my school through AIM instant messenger. This was put to an end when my mother saw what they wrote me on the computer. She is both a parent and a teacher (high school teacher) and quickly took matters to the principal. Unfortunately it only made things worse which is why I believe it needs to be stopped before it happens!