I, Cyberbully. 29 May, 2009
Posted by paralleldivergence in education, hell, ICT in Education, Internet, Life, My Thoughts, pranks.Tags: cyberbullying, Life, school, social networking, students
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I’m not sure I quite remember when and how it started. He was just another boy in my class. But it seemed that everything he did just grated on me. No, I don’t want to listen to your music. Hell, that’s a stupid haircut. Put your hand down and shutup for god’s sake. I’m gonna say something to him.
image by Jeff Weston
That felt sooo good. Someone had to tell him and I’m glad it was me. He just stood there gobsmacked as I walked away. He thinks he’s so smart, but I showed him. My friends thought it was hilarious when I told them. “You can’t stop now!”, they said. “That bastard deserves it!”. “I’ve got his phone number from that time he sent me a text about his stupid homework assignment.”
It was only three little words. They weren’t even particularly well-chosen. Everyone was coming up with ideas for the next message. And the next. And the next. All sent from different phones. It was sweet. We could clearly see his face squirm everytime his phone beeped.
“What can we do next?”
“Let’s call him from the payphone.”
“We can take his picture. Make a Facebook for him.”
“Why don’t we do an I.M.-bombardment?”
“Does anyone know his MSN password?”
“Yeah, it’s ‘creedfan’.”
“What the?? He’s going down!”
I remember he didn’t come to school again for a few days. It was so peaceful. But then “Little Miss Try-Hard” decided to get in my way. I love my phone. I love I.M. I love my friends.
– Of course, there are two-sides to every story. The U.K. Department of Children, Schools and Families tells the other side in this excellent video:
Cyberbullying: Laugh at it and you’re part of it. Let’s all fight it together.
Parallel Divergence 
Excellent video. As a teacher and as a parent I can see how important it is to be vigilant around our students and especially our own children. An interesting take telling the other side of the story, all in the one post.
Thanks for sharing this. I’ll pass it on around school.
Thanks Samantha K. Cyberbullying is such a massive problem worldwide that we really can’t just sweep it under the rug any longer.
Hi Stu.. The story you have used to provide context is excellent. I just saw a movie at the Dungog Film Festival today which placed in stark relief the journey, or attempt to find a place within our world, that boys face as they progress through adolescence: especially if they are the type of boys who, like so many, don’t fit usual stereotypes. You have created a powerful piece.
Hi Stu,
An excellent video – thanks for sharing. This is the sort of thing that must be communicated
Thanks Simon and Roger. There’s an excellent resource about cyberbullying available from digizen.org – http://www.digizen.org/downloads/cyberbullying_teachers.pdf