The Plague of Today
“Our culture’s cyberbullying problem needs to be fixed before the bullying happens” (Menza 1). Cyberbullying is a large problem in today’s society. The argument about cyberbullying is based on how it should be dealt with. Some believe that it should be addressed by the school districts, whereas other people believe it should be dealt with by the police force or other law enforcement agencies. Cyberbullying is a serious crime and should not be taken lightly. Although police enforcement may sound harsh, it is the only way to effectively stop cyberbullying from occurring online.
Schools have currently been given a very big responsibility of dealing with cyberbullying. As of 2010, Jim Masucci reported that “42% of teens surveyed admitted to being bullied online” (Masucci 1). This expressed the idea that the government should take legal action when cyberbullying is occurring. The school districts have been given the opportunity to lower the amount of cyberbullying taking place, and they have not been able to lower it. Masucci goes on to write “35% claim to have been threatened” (Masucci 1). The police force should take action in order to lower the percentage of those that are cyberbullied and threatened. The educational system does not have the ability to take legal action, which is why the police force needs to intervene.
Cyberbullying in many forms breaks laws consistent with the civil rights bill that exists in the Constitution of the United States of America. This means that the breaking of these laws should be corrected directly by the government through the police and other law enforcing bodies, not just through the schools. Russlyn Ali states that, “When such harassment is based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability, it violates the civil rights laws that OCR (the Office of Civil Rights) enforces” (Ali 1). This quote shows that many forms of harassment, be they physical or online, can break the laws listed in the Constitution. This should not be taken lightly as this is the supreme law of the land in the United States of America. Anyone breaking these laws should not be held accountable by a teaching agency, but rather by a police force, or other law enforcement body that deals with serious legal incidents.
There are many different types of cyberbullying. The school is not able to take legal action in most cases and this is why the police force should deal with cyberbullying. In one incident of cyberbullying in New Jersey, a principal recalled “This occurred out of school, we can’t discipline him” (Hoffman 1). Academic institutions are not able to discipline students, which is why government agencies should take legal action against these cyberbullying crimes. The police force has the ability to attack the perpetrators of these crimes. The weekends are the most plausible time for cyberbullying to occur, and it is during this time that the school is out of their jurisdiction. The police must take action against the people committing the act of cyberbullying, largely because it occurs when the school cannot punish it.
Cyberbullying should be taken into account with law enforcement and the police but not to the extent of excessive punishment in children. As the Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance Jr. states, “We don’t think legislation is the best way to deal with cyberbullying. When we take the opportunity to have kids talk to us and listen to us, we make more progress than the police” (Chu 1). This means that taking the time to talk to students about the wrongs they are committing online will be more beneficial than charging them with some sort of crime. It is difficult for a person to learn when they are punished for something they did not know was wrong. The hard thing is, there needs to be a consequence as well as a teaching experience so the students will learn how to better behave online.
Cyberbullying is a serious offense and it isn’t being dealt with in the school systems, people who cyberbully are breaking the law and should be dealt with by the police. Cyberbullying can violate the constitution which the government must protect. Also, the educational system cannot punish behavior outside of school, which is where the bulk of cyberbullying occurs. If it continues to spiral out of control, there is no telling how many more people will be cyberbullied every day. The school system, and the citizens of the United States would benefit most by the intervention of the police or other law enforcement bodies, taking action to end the problem of cyberbullying.