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Evan Maroni

James Madison University JMU Box 3206 Harrisonburg, VA 22807 April 28th, 2013 Larry West Founder Open Talk Magazine 1222 W. Wilson Suite 2E Chicago, IL 20640 Dear Larry West, I am pleased to submit my essay on how the impacts of cyber-bullying and how it can and has led to violence to the Open Talk magazine. The main focus of this essay is raise awareness about the topic of cyber-bullying, as it often gets overlooked by other issues. Cyber-bullying is a problem which has caused many tragic, violent acts in the past, but has yet to gain to awareness it is warranted. In this piece I discuss the basics on cyber-bullying, the impact it can and already has, as well as some current efforts to diminish its impact in schools. Your audience encompasses those focused on social issues and your magazine has published articles on bullying in the past. I believe your readers will be interested in this topic that often gets overlooked by the majority of people. In this piece I have carefully selected images to support my position and provide some real life examples on how this problem has already impacted people on a national level. Hopefully, my piece will raise awareness on the topic of cyber-bullying and inspire people to get involved and help stop this issue. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Evan Maroni

GWRTC 103 Impact of Cyber-Bullying

Evan Maroni

While Americans ponder how gun control or having more security in schools can prevent tragedy from occurring, one important problem is going overlooked. Cyber-bullying is a problem which has caused many tragic acts, which have devastated the entire nation time and time again. In addition, it is responsible for many much smaller incidents, which many Americans never even hear about.

Cyber-bullying is defined as the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person, but it encompasses so much more (Webster). Cyber-bullying is done in social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter,
Figure 1 This image shows a screenshot example of cyber-bullying via Twitter.

and MySpace, among others. Text messaging is a much more common form of cyber-bullying than many realize. While this form of cyberbullying may come off as much less harmful, it has just as devastating effects on the victims of these acts. Cyber-bullying has impacted so many people, and has taken so many forms over the years. It has been responsible for some of the most tragic acts in our nations history, many of which involved young people. For this reason it needs to be taken seriously and a strong effort must be made to raise awareness regarding this issue, and decrease its frequency to improve the safety of students in our schools.

Figure 2 Four teens huddle around a cell phone. Text messaging is a common way in which individuals are cyber-bullied

One thing people do not realize about cyberbullying is the scope of the problem. Cyber-bullying impacts so many individuals, both directly as victims, or indirectly as those close to the victims. It has been reported that one in six students are regularly bullied in schools (Carroll). Another common misconception is that strictly the victim is impacted by the mistreatment. This could not be further from the truth. The families, friends, and even bystanders are all impacted as well as the victim of the bullying. Those that care for the victim take an extreme emotional toll because of these incidents. The photo below shows an example of how a parent is utterly offended by the mistreatment her child is receiving, causing the parent emotional stress along with the child. The

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scope of the problem is something that many individuals do not realize about cyber-bullying as anyone can be targeted and all the individuals close to the victim face emotional consequences which can be just as serious. In addition many well-known individuals have led very successful lives after being bullied in their childhood, but some individuals were much less fortunate in how they were able to overcome being bullied.
Figure 3 A girl and her mother are clearly apalled by a text message the girl received. Parents and other family members are another group impacted when and individual gets cyber-bullied.

As opposed to some using bullying as motivation, some individuals unfortunately turn to violence. Cyber-bullying is a leading

cause of violent altercations, as approximately 35% of kids have been threatened online (Bullying Statistics). Violence can strike in many forms, both on a small scale and on a very large scale. One tragic example is the story of Tyler Clementi, who is shown in Figure 4. During his freshman year of college, Clementis roommate at Rutgers University had a mounted webcam spying on Clementi while he had a romantic encounter with another man. People were encouraged to watch this video of Clementi through his roommates twitter posting. This caused Clementi to take his own life at the age of 18.
Figure 4 Photo of Tyler Clementi (left) and his mother Jane (right). Tyler Clementi committed suicide at the age of 18 after being victim of a cyber-bullying attack through the use of a webcam

Figure 5 Dharun Ravi, the college roommate of Tyler Clementi, was the bully leading to Clementi's suicide.

Clementis roommate, Dharun Ravi, has seen legal consequences and has been deemed responsible for the death of Tyler Clementi. Ravi was sentenced to just thirty days in jail after this effort of cyberbullying (Zernike). Ravi is shown in Figure 5; an individual whose life has changed forever because he did not realize the seriousness cyber-bullying can have on an individual. This is just one tragic example of an individual struggling with cyber-

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bullying and not being able to recover from it. Another example, one which receives significantly less publicity, is the story of Megan Meier. Just days before her fourteenth birthday, she took her own life after being cyber-bullied. A fake MySpace of an older teen boy was created by her former best friend, in order to humiliate her. After becoming very close with this fake individual, the friendship was broken off, and Megan was slandered on social media sites. This is just another tragic example of cyber-bullying causing a young person to take their own life. This is a situation in which, many individuals could have made a difference in putting an end to this relationship before it got out of hand.
Figure 6

Figure 7 The parents of Megan Meier, who lost their daughter to cyber-bullying.

Currently, there are many organizations and groups that have recently formed to deal with the cyber-bullying issue. This provides individuals with many avenues to get involved in raising awareness about cyber-bullying and its consequences. One organization is called Safe School Ambassadors, which is becoming more and more common in elementary, middle, and high schools. This organization has a narrowed focus at raising awareness and stopping bullying in their respective

schools and communities. This program teaches and trains a select group of individuals how to react to certain instances of bullying. Teaching these students these skills is critical as they are ones that are going to most easily see bullying in their communities, which is specifically true for incidents of cyber-bullying through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.
Figure 8 Anti-bullying organization called Safe School Ambassadors learns about ways to prevent bullying at their school. This is one of many organizations attempting to decrease the amount of bullying, including cyber-bullying, in schools.

However, this is just one of many ways one can participate in this cause. Another group recently created in many schools, is PEER. PEER is a group designed at providing a forum for which struggling students can have a caring individual of similar age and circumstances to talk too and get thoughtful assistance with their problems. The individuals selected for this program are very specific and influential

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individuals, who can make a serious impact on someones life. This group is additionally responsible for many programs, events, and gatherings designed to raise awareness towards bullying, which gives a large group of students an additional opportunity to get involved. PEER goes out into their own school, nearby schools, and the community to teach and make others aware of the impacts their behaviors can have on their targets and everyone else involved. One of the common ways in which awareness is raised by these groups and others, is through school wide gatherings and assemblies. This allows a forum to speak Figure 9 PEER is another group attempting to limit the amount directly to the root of the problem and make of violence stemming from mistreatment of students. them aware of the problems going on around them, some of which they may be causing. These events have a focus on teaching individuals the various kinds of bullying, with a focus on the most prevalent such as cyber bullying, as well as the consequences that these actions can have. These school wide and interactive assemblies can have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the bullying in the school, and it gives many students an opportunity to get involved in this effort. These groups and programs are critical to the cause of raising awareness about cyberbullying, as it gives people a way to get involved on a small scale, but have their involvement spread throughout the community. With the technological improvements and addition of social media, cyber-bullying has become an extremely widespread issue, causing significant violence throughout the community. This is a problem that is overshadowed by issues such as control and security issues, which causes it to get significantly overlooked. Significant awareness must be raised on this issue in order to prevent future violence such as suicides and school shootings. Without the help of everyone, these problems may continue to occur and devastate the nation.

Figure 10 One method taken to raise awareness about bullying in schools is through a school-wide assembly, as done here.

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Works Cited "Bullying Statistics." -. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2013. <http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics.html>. Carroll, Linda. "1 in 6 Students Is Regularly Bullied, Survey Shows." Msnbc.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2013. <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39758956/ns/healthchildrens_health/t/students-regularly-bullied-survey-shows/>. "CyberbullyingAbout Our Definitions: All Forms of a Word (noun, Verb, Etc.) Are Now Displayed on One Page." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2013. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cyberbullying>. Zernike, Kate. "Jail Term Ends After 20 Days For a Former Rutgers Student." The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 June 2012. Web. 04 Feb. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/nyregion/dharun-ravi-ex-rutgers-student-whospied-leaves-jail.html?_r=0>.

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Photo Credits Alison, Allison. Peer. 2012. Stone Bridge High School, Web. 4 Feb 2013. http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/MLA/photograph Campbell, Traci S. Cyber-Bullying Stories. 2012. The Social Advocate Voice, Web. 4 Feb 2013. http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/MLA/photograph Christie, Casey. 2009. Californian, Bakersfield. The Bakersfield Californian, Web. 4 Feb 2013. http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/MLA/photograph Holtz, Matt. 2010. Bulldog Tribune, Web. 4 Feb. 2013. http://www.bulldogtribune.com/opinions/2010/11/04/bulldogs-don%E2%80%99t-bullyassembly-putting-an-end-to-harassment-one-person-at-a-time/ Munson, John. 2012. ABC News, Web. 4 Feb 2013. http://abcnews.go.com/US/rutgersstudent-dharun-ravi-released-jail/story?id=16602245 N.d. Photograph. Megan Meier Foundation. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/megansStory.php>. N.d. Photograph. Text2Cloud. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://text2cloud.com/2010/12/everyonecaught-in-the-act-the-world-peeks-through-the-digital-keyhole/>. Stopbullying.gov. 4 Feb 2013. http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/index.html Tyler and Jane Clementi. 2012. NBC News, Web. 4 Feb 2013. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39461231/