If Phoebe Prince’s death teaches us anything, it should be that we need to act—now!
According to the Boston Herald, the 15-year-old at South Hadley High School student (pictured at right) committed suicide last week because she was relentlessly bullied, both at school and through text message, Facebook, and other social networking websites. The Boston Globe reported that Phoebe received a “barrage of ridicule from a clique of girls who were irate that she had dated a football player.” This is a pathetic and sorrowful story too often repeated by our youth.
We must quickly take preventative action at the following three fronts (and in this order):
- In the home: There is no better way to solve a problem than to go to its root. Every one of us is a product of the homes we came from. Parents have a heavy responsibility to teach their children the golden rule: Always treat others as you would have them treat you—whether in person, online or elsewhere. Parents also need to teach their children how to properly use today’s connected technologies (see iKeepSafe’s Parent Resource Center for more information). As ReputationDefender, Inc.’s Noah Lang recently said, “We encourage parents to work to prevent cyberbullying from ever happening by educating your kids, monitoring their (and your own) online presence and leveraging proactive reputation management tools.” Beyond teaching, however, parents must live this rule as well and express love to their children.
- At school: Educators also have a great responsibility to teach children to treat others with respect and how to properly use today’s connected technologies (see iKeepSafe’s For Educators page for more information).
- Lawmakers and law enforcement: As Walter E. Williams said, “the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defense for a civilized society. Our increased reliance on laws to regulate behavior is a measure of how uncivilized we’ve become.” Even with this truth in mind, it is refreshing to see lawmakers giving more attention to bullying legislation. The Boston Globe quoted representative Martha M. Walz, a Boston Democrat: “It’s very clear we need to address cyberbullying. It’s part of school culture, even if it doesn’t happen within the four walls of a school building.”
I firmly believe the greatest change will occur when children are taught correct principles at home and in school. If this were to be done, there would not be so great a need for more and more laws. But, as we all know, the need for more laws is great. In this specific instance, I can’t say what the appropriate punishment should be. One thing is for sure, though: Life is priceless, and these bullies caused a classmate to lose her life.
Samuel Hislop is a regular contributor to the official internet safety blog of the iKeepSafe Coalition.You can learn more about child internet safety and ethics by visiting iKeepSafe.org.
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