Week 14: School's Responsibilities of Technology

The articles regarding sexting and teen suicide are both extremely upsetting and disappointing on the schools' part.  In both cases, the schools dropped the ball and disregarded certain signs that could have prevented these tragedies.  Schools need to play a bigger role in preventing cyber bullying, which could lead to depression and suicide.

Lessons on safe and responsible web browsing need to be implemented into the curricula.  Teachers should be responsible for raising student awareness on the dangers of internet and technology, which include three important lessons that I believe need to be enforced.  The first point teachers should make in their internet safety lesson is that nothing is private in the "internet world."  Even with privacy settings, pictures on Facebook and videos sent through text messages or emails can be accessed by anyone.  A second key point that teachers should stress is that no one is invincible.  Many people think that it won't happen to them; that the pictures they send won't go viral.  Unfortunaely, it is very easy to share anything and very hard to trust people with personal pictures or videos.  The final lesson that should be taught, is that once a picture is out there the cyberworld, it is there forever, even if it's deleted.  Incriminating pictures can affect future employment and college acceptances.  Sexting will always be harmful, if not tragic.  In health classes, the dangers of sexting should be taught along side with lessons on self- esteem issues.  If students are well educated about the dangers of the internet, then hopefully cases of sexting will decrease.

Schools also have the responsibility for having a zero tolerance on cyber bullying, as well as face-to-face bullying.  The schools need to create a comfortable environment that will allow students to annonymously report and instances of cyber bullying, and then take the approriate action to put it to an end.  Teachers and school staff also need to aware of signs of depression and suicide that could be linked to cyber bullying, and always keep the parents informed.  In Hope Witsell's case, it's unbelievable that the school didn't inform her parents on the signs on self-inflicted harm that they noticed on her body.  By keeping the parents involved, more tragedies like this case can be prevented.  Also, schools have the responsibility to monitor internet usage on school property closely and carefully.  In Melanie Paradis's case, a racy video she had texted a fellow boy classmate was uploaded on a school computer.  Schools need to prevent that from happening and take immediate action to carry out the consequences of doing such a thing.

With sexting on the rise, schools have a responsibility to educate students on approriate internet behavior and carry out the consequences of any cyber bullying that is reported.