Bullies use the new technologies to spread their hate near and far

In this day and age of technology, children and teenagers are facing a new kind of threat from the bullies at school - harassment, not only at school, but also at home. Social websites like Facebook and MySpace, even text messaging, have all become ways for people to communicate daily, but these technologies are a new outlet for bullies to continue their harassment of their classmates long after the final bell has rung.

"We, as a society, haven't done the best of job of monitoring it (cyber bullying)," said Brad Mendenhall, principal of Evergreen Middle School. "I tell parents your kids could be sitting next to you while your driving in the car, text messaging someone and being a bully, and they wouldn't even know. Then the kids can erase (the messages) before parents even see it."

According to the National Crime Prevention Center, more than 40 percent of all teenagers with Internet access have reported being bullied online during the past year.

Karl Stemmler, principal of West Valley, said it doesn't take long for students to realize you're not enforcing a policy and he said it is something they take very serious because of the disruptive nature of bullying and that it can't be tolerated.

"That's why it very important for us to have a resource officer on campus. John (Green) is very knowledgeable about how Ed Code lines up with the Penal Code."

John Green, the Resource Officer for West Valley High School, said there are about five or six reports of "cyber-bullying" on the Eagle campus each school year. He added that many times parents, counselors, teachers, or even the student being harassed will approach them and tell them about the situation.

Officer Green said it is mostly a "juvenile behavior" which is often seen in middle school, but freshman and sophomores are mostly involved with this type of harassment at West Valley.

Green said social networking sites, like Facebook and MySpace, are mostly where the cyber-bullying are taking place, along with text messages.

According to both Green and Stemmler, school officials only need probable cause to take a student's cell phone from them and if the resource officer knows what they are looking for, can find the hate messages in a matter of minutes without sending the phone to a forensic lab.

Both said once they know what is going on, they involve the parents and that 99 percent of the time, that takes care of the problem. Green said they educate the parents on what their child is doing and what is cyber-bullying.

"Most parents don't realize that if the harassment started at school and continued after, that it is still part of the school's investigation and can be used against the student because it started on campus," said Stemmler.

Green said there hadn't been any suicides related to cyber-bullying in Shasta County. He said they haven't had to deal with sexting problems yet. Green said it is probably going on, but he and school officials had not been made aware of it.