Bullying in the news

[dreamer_easy]

Teachers looked away: $468,000 for bully victim

School teachers the victims of bullying - most often by "school executive staff".

Is cyber-bullying a crime? Australian lawyers discuss the "piecemeal" legal protection for targets. Their opinion is that bullying is too difficult for ISPs to define and remove because it's "subjective". This seems slightly odd given that ISPs have been defining and removing abusive content for years now. Not to mention that, as the article points out, there are already laws which cover harassment and intimidation of pupils which could be extended to include cyberbullying. If those laws don't already define bullying clearly enough, social scientists offer rigorous descriptions which could be used to create legal definitions. There's no need to force ISPs to monitor content; they need only respond to complaints, much as they do now. Whether or not the courts are the right place to deal with cyberbullying, though, the little fuckers will keep doing it as long as they can get away with it: I can't help being sceptical of efforts to prevent bullying which don't include any consequences for the bullies.

Comments

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

Do you think undermining a junior teacher's authority in front of her class by a senior teacher or deputy principal would count as bullying?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Interesting question. The researchers have set up a little Web site, http://www.schoolbullies.org.au/, which gives their definition: "repeated and persistent negative acts towards one or more individual(s) which involve a persistent power imbalance and create a hostile work environment". Have a look at the executive summary of their findings - it's very detailed.