By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) Apr 3 | School officials in Massachusetts are combating a cyberbullying epidemic which has exploded at high schools all over the Commonwealth. According to statistics released by the Massachusetts State Police, one in 10 students have been targeted online. Unrelenting bullying -- online and off -- drove South Hadley Massachusetts High School freshman Phoebe Prince to hang herself in January.
On Monday, March 29th, nine teens were indicted in that case for driving the pretty 15-year-old "new girl" from Ireland to suicide in a case that has become a symbol of high school cyberbullying. The sweeping charges - which come after months of complaints that the bullies weren't being punished - include statutory rape, violation of civil rights with bodily injury, criminal harassment and stalking.
Phoebe Prince, a new arrival at South Hadley High School from a tiny seaside hamlet in County Clare, Ireland, was mercilessly tormented by a cadre of classmates later dubbed the "Mean Girls" by newspapers in the state.
Now, 90 miles from South Hadley, Boston is trying to prevent a similar tragedy. The city became so concerned about bullying in its own schools that it set up an anti-bullying hot line.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is incensed over this issue. Citing a case reported on Saturday by ABCNews.com's correspondents Yunji De Nies & Suzanne Yeo, on Boston's Charlestown High School seniors, Jamila Hussein and Jonathan Delgado, the mayor said:
"I saw some of the comments they made [online]. They were outrageous. We have to try to be helpful, have the resources to get these young people out of these predicaments."
Hussein and Delgadoare almost always online but lately, they've wanted to disconnect, after finding themselves the targets of cyberbullying. Both teens recently logged on to Facebook to find their pictures along with anonymous postings, calling them names so ugly, neither wanted to repeat what had been written.
"I cried. I really cried. I screamed," 18-year-old Hussein told ABCNews. "It was my face, and that's what made me angry. They took my picture without my permission, and they wrote some things about me that were hurtful and disrespectful."
"They really try to hit you from everywhere and you know, hurt you whenever and however they can," Delgado said. "It's just something that's so cruel, like, why would you do this?"
He and Hussein agree that the anonymity of the Internet combined with the public forum that sites like Facebook provide make the harassment even worse. Many of the attacks against girls accuse them of being promiscuous. Those against boys question and often attack their sexual orientation. Hussein says the hateful online posts are so common, students at Charlestown High School in Boston check the site regularly.
Boston Police have sent a memo to the city's school administrators & principals providing tips on how students can avoid invasion of privacy on the Internet. The memo said:
"Students should be reminded to restrict access to their on-line profiles and not become "friends" of the pages posting the offending photos lest they become victims themselves."
Joining such pages makes it easy for posters to steal photos from the victims' own profiles and publish them without permission, the memo explains. In cases where the students who are being disparaged are easily recognized, school officials should be proactive and call the children's parents directly, the memo advised.
Police said they are working hard to get Facebook and other social-networking sites to take down offensive pages, but acknowledged that with the speed of the Internet, "policing the millions of pages on any of these sites ... is nearly impossible."
Mayor Menino also announced establishing a hot line, which, along with a public service campaign and cyberbullying mentors -- older students who help younger ones cope -- are all part of Boston's new comprehensive approach to this 21st-century problem.
The anti-cyberbullying hot line director Steven Belec told ABCNews that they receive a large number of calls from parents who do not understand the technology and feel overwhelmed. He said there has been a steady stream of calls since they opened the hot line last month, noting that the age range varies from elementary through high school students.
In a statement to ABCNews, Facebook said:
"There is no place on Facebook for bullying, and we will continue to work aggressively to remove people who attempt to misuse our service to abuse others. We encourage those who notice bullying to immediately report it to us, and to discuss it with parents, teachers, and others in the community who can help."
Boston residents can call Mayor Thomas Menino's help line during the week to ask for the cyberbullying call center at 617-534-5050.
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