Turnabout is fair play

By Trevon Jackson

Thornton Township High School

In the bully’s world, turnabout is fair play. Sheano Gold can attest to that.

Gold, a student at Thornton Township High School in suburban Chicago, doesn’t look like the typical bully. But his slim, 6-foot-tall frame is deceiving, as it enabled him to intimidate the less fortunate. He started out bullying his little cousins because he was bigger and was not concerned about how they felt being picked on.

In grade school, problems at home led him to harass other students. Gold said in an interview that he was abusive toward peers because it was his way of exacting revenge for all the hurtful things that occurred to him. He didn’t need the Internet since he preferred to do his bullying in person.

Eventually, the 18-year-old Riverdale resident had a long talk with his father about being a bully and hurting others and underwent a change of heart. Although Gold ended his reign of terror, many others don’t.

So political, municipal and school authorities are hitting back by cracking down on those who harass their peers, especially if done through online sources. Last summer, the Chicago Public Schools board joined efforts that stiffen penalties to prevent abuse and intimidation via the Internet.

Bullies usually justify their actions because it is what others are doing in their circle of friends; or it makes them feel empowered or superior; or it keeps other bullies at bay. In some cases, the acts can turn violent, such as punching, shoving or throwing objects. Thirty-two percent of students ages 12 to 18 reported being bullied in 2007.

According to the Pacer Center in Minneapolis, physical abuse starts its ascent in elementary school, reaches its apex in middle school and begins its descent in high school. However, the agency notes that verbal abuse stays constant.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has done research on some of the traits among bullies. Here are some characteristics of a serial harasser:

● Impulsive

● Easily angered

● Temperamental

● Dominant

● Easily frustrated

● Lacking empathy

● Difficulty following rules

● Anti-social behavior

The federal agency notes that home environments of disinterested parents and an abusive household—physical or mental—are contributing factors in the creation of a bully.

Though Gold took a more conventional approach of intimidating his targets, others are increasingly turning to the Internet to act out their maliciousness. For bullies have adapted to the times, going from verbal in-your-face confrontations to the subtleties of cyber abuse as access to computers, smart phones and other technologies has spread. Studies have found that some children turn Internet Dennis the Menaces as early as age 9.

What is cyberbullying? Well, it can take on several forms such as sending someone vulgar or threatening messages or images, lying about someone in e-mails, excluding someone from an online group or using someone’s identity to damage his or her reputation.

The growth of cyberbullying over the Internet has drawn the attention of private and public agencies, as a third of U.S. teenagers acknowledge that they have been victimized.

Last year, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) labeled "electronic aggression"—its term for cyberbullying—an "emerging public health problem.” It noted that more than 40 percent of middle school students had acknowledged being cyberbullied, but only 9 percent had reported the incidents. When asked about the origin of the abuse, they pointed to websites such as MySpace, instant messages and e- mails.

Internet Solutions for Kids’ website, cyberbully411.org, reported that 21 to 30 percent of youth had used web resources to harass others. It also found that 63 percent of the harassers were 18 or younger compared with 14 percent who are older than 18.

A CDC report http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/YVP/electronic_aggression.htm titled “Electronic Media and Youth Violence” found anonymity was a big part of electronic aggression. It found that 13 percent to 46 percent of the victims did not know their harasser.

Though data differ, studies have found that the intimidation is more prevalent among girls than boys, according to the 2008 CDC report. Research notes that girls use more subtle forms of bullying–ridicule, teasing and cliques–and mainly target other girls while boys tend to be more physical and target both sexes.

Regardless who is doing it, the problem has become so epidemic that millions of teens have felt the vise of cyber intimidation. It has caused some youth to go into deep emotional stress or depression or even take extreme actions.

Last March, Massachusetts prosecutors charged nine teenagers over their "unrelenting" bullying of a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide two months earlier. Phoebe Prince, a recent Irish immigrant and freshman at South Hadley High School, hanged herself on Jan. 14, 2010, after nearly three months of harassing text and social networking messages. Prince was reportedly resented because she was dating an older football player.

Another case that drew wide media attention was the suicide in 2006 of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old Missouri resident who received insulting messages via MySpace from a neighborhood mother pretending to be a teenage boy.

Some, however, have not heeded the lessons from those earlier tragedies.

Two local incidents have been reported in the media. In December, two Park Ridge middle school students, ages 13 and 14, were charged with harassing a 13-year-old classmate by setting up an offensive site on Facebook. More recently, Oak Park River Forest High School took disciplinary measures against a student accused of circulating via printouts and Facebook an “inappropriate ranking list” of 50 girls based on their body features, promiscuity and other disparaging terms.

Susan Swearer, associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska, said communities must join forces to prevent the abuse. “Children who bully and victims all must take proactive stands against these statistics by getting involved in their school and their community,” the author, who has written about bullying and victimization, explained on the university's website.

So officials have taken steps to prevent bullying and to punish offenders.

Across the U.S., states have laws against cyberharassment or cyberstalking, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. http://www.ncsl.org/ To protect minors, more than 30 states have enacted anti-cyberbullying laws.

Illinois enacted a cyberbullying statute in 2009 that allows authorities to charge anyone 17 or younger who transmits nude or sexually explicit materials via an electronic device with a Class B misdemeanor, subject to up to six months in jail and a $1,500 fine. Minors who exchange "sext" messages face a Class A misdemeanor, which can mean up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. Those who post a sexually explicit image with malicious intent and leave it up for 24 hours face a Class 4 felony charge that carries a one- to three-year prison sentence.

In July, Chicago Public Schools stiffened its penalties. The district of at least 670 schools and more than 400,000 students already had disciplinary guidelines regarding the misuse of classroom computers. During the summer, the board of education took those rules into the realm of cyberbullying with a tougher Student Code of Conduct. http://policy.cps.k12.il.us/

The new guidelines equate severe online misdeeds—either on or off school grounds— as serious offenses, such as aggravated assault or burglary. Perpetrators will be suspended from five to 10 days and could face expulsion. Police will also be notified about the incident and they could file criminal charges.

Other fight-back measures include lectures about cyberbullying prevention by the Cook County Sheriff's Youth Services Department http://www.cookcountysheriff.org/jail_diversion/youthservices_main.html and raising sensitivity about the problem during the National Cyber Safety Awareness Month, which was held in October 2010 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

However, the No. 1 tip to victims of bullies, either offline or online, is to report the incident to their parents or other authority figures. An investigation will help police determine what action to take, including possible charges.