Cyberbullying Workshops Minutes
Tuesday, February 21, 2006 – 5:00 p.m.
School Board Meeting Room
Stuart, FL 34994
Members Present
Laurie Gaylord-Vice-Chair
Dr. David Anderson
Susan Hershey
Nancy Kline
Dr. Sara A. Wilcox, Superintendent
Tom Elfers, School Board Attorney
Members Absent
Lorie Shekailo-Chair
Kristin Conrad, Student Representative (JBHS)
Staff Present
Hank Salzler, Dr. Frank Raffone, Ruth Pietruszewski, Darla Miloszewski, Rodger Osborne, Cathleen Brennan, Darrell Miller, Cathy Brennan, Ray Parrish, Sig George, Dodie Graham, Joan Hunt, Bill Connolly, Pat Schmoyer, Gary Shelt, Nancy Marin, Debbie Henderson, CeCe Hysmith, Tyson Vilwock, Delores Calloway
Public
Press PBPost – Mike Bender Stuart News – Kelly Tyko
Channel 5-Katie Brace, Ian Devier Channel 25-Cathleen O’Toole
MCEA – No representation AFSCME – No representation
Call to order by the Vice- Chairman and Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States
1. Open to the Public
§ No representation
2. Presentation on Cyberbullying
Nancy Kline introduced Sameer Hinduja. She had seen his presentation and found his work fascinating. Sameer explained how he was bullied when he was a child and how emotionally disturbing it felt. He described the different ways children could bully others today using the latest technology and gave examples. He explained that technology has given people lots of capabilities when they have malicious intentions. He showed how children could use their camera phones to take candid photos and circulate them or place them on web sites. He showed actual photos put on the internet by students, and he previewed the myspace.com website, which is one of the many social networking sites. He showed examples and gave descriptions of cyberbullying. He explained how bullies can remain “virtually” anonymous. He informed everyone that it was easier to be cruel through texting than by phone or in person. The current online study tested experience as a bully, experience as a victim, responses to bullying, and provided open ended questions. The goals of the study were to illuminate this form of adolescent aggression, the prevalence, frequency, scope and consequences of online harassment, and the link to offline behaviors. He reviewed the emotional affects of bullying on an individual. He described the hurt and pain that followed this behavior. He talked about who the victim would tell that they were being bullied. Children were afraid to tell their parents in fear that they would lose their computer privileges. Sameer explained the proposed research. FAU was currently reviewing this research proposal and the survey instrument. The study done by FAU used volunteers; therefore, Sameer was concerned if the results were reliable, especially since it was done online. He wanted to replicate the study among middle school students. His survey instrument would ensure human rights were not violated in any manner. He suggested surveying by passive consent. He stated that the response rate was lower when using active consent. The objective of the study was to obtain a better understanding of the causes and correlations of cyber bullying. Another objective was to identify the role that cyberbullying had in contributing to traditional school delinquency and violence. Sameer hoped to survey 4,300 students across four middle schools during 2006-07 school year, using HOMS, IMS, MMS, and SMS.
2. Presentation on Cyberbullying (Con’t)
The survey topics would include:
Ø Student experience with IT
Ø Types and location of cyberbullying
Ø How it affects school and family
Ø Role of authority figures
Ø Psychological, emotional, behavioral repercussions
Ø Self-Esteem
Ø Empathy
The deliverables from this research would include:
Ø Four progress reports
Ø One final program report
Ø Executive summary
Ø Presentation at MCSD engagements
Ø Series of short papers for specific audiences
Ø Presentation at Criminal Justice Conferences
Ø Articles for Criminal Justice journals
3. Open to the Board
Nancy Kline
Stated that this was remarkable research and information is powerful. She learned that 55 million children under 17 had posted information on myspace.com website.
Sue Hershey
Stated that she wanted the student representative from JBHS, Kristin Conrad, to take a look at this material.
Dr. Sara A. Wilcox
Stated that the school district used passive consent on their surveys.
Sue Hershey
Asked Sameer if they had used anonymous samples in the survey.
Sameer Hinduja
Answered yes.
Sue Hershey
Asked Sameer if he had surveyed any other school districts. She suggested that she may be able to show his research to FSBA, since she was the President-Elect. She said she would be happy to talk with him to try and do this throughout the state.
Sameer Hinduja
Said he had started with Martin County School District and had not surveyed any other districts. He had only used volunteers in his research.
Dr. Sara A. Wilcox
Stated that our ET department had been proactive. She reviewed what Martin County School district had done to stop cyberbullying. The Educational Technology strategies used to reduce cyberbullying included:
1) The district did not provide e-mail service to students.
2) The district did not provide Instant Messaging to students.
3) All known chat sites were blocked.
4) Myspace.com was blocked.
5) A software product is in use in high school media centers that allows the media specialist to monitor student computer use.
6) Content filtering prevents access to inappropriate sites.
Dr. Sara A. Wilcox stated that it was important to inform student and parents.
Laurie Gaylord
Felt parents needed to be educated on this subject.
Ray Parrish
Reported that the reason Cyberbullying was dangerous was that it lead to horrible behavior. Ray asked Sameer why he was targeting middle school and not high school.
3. Open to the Board (Con’t)
Sameer Hinduja
Stated that the pilot survey targeted middle school students, because the high school students, being older, had a little more maturity, and were less susceptible to the bullying.
There being no further business to bring before the Board, the meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.
_______________________________
VICE -CHAIR (Laurie Gaylord)
_______________________________
SECRETARY (Sara A. Wilcox, Ph.D.)