The TODAY online article by Mike Celizic “Her Teen Committed Suicide Over ‘Sexting’” tells the story of Jessica Logan, a young teen from Ohio. Logan sent out a nude picture of herself to her then boyfriend, who went to a different school. When the relationship ended, her boyfriend sent out the nude photo to some fellow high school peers. Logan`s peers began to harass her online, causing her to become depressed and afraid to go to class. In an interview with Logan`s mother, Cynthia Logan, and friends on the Today Show her friend Lauren Taylor said “when she would go to school she would hear people say ‘oh that's the girl from the pictures, she's just a whore, she wants attention.’” Even though she graduated, and was going to leave those peers, …show more content…
she still ended her life. When Jessica and Cynthia Logan went to her high school to stop the harassment, the school said that they would go to the school where the boyfriend went and demand the picture be deleted and the male never speak to Logan again. Since this is a “sexting” case, there are actually laws against it, if she was underage. Logan was eighteen the time that the photo was taken, therefore it is not against the law. However, if she or the boyfriend were under the legal age, child pornargraphy would be charged, not only on the boyfriend, but also Logan for the distribution of child pornargraphy. Cynthia Logan posed the question, “why isn't the schools being held liable if the photos disseminated?” Mrs. Tab, a internet safety spokesperson stated that schools are now getting in trouble if they do not do anything, however a jurisdiction issue is very prominent. Hope Witsell had a similar situation.
According to Randa Kaye, a CNN correspondent, in his online article “How a Cell Phone Picture Led To A Girl's Suicide” Hope Witsell was a 13 year old girl that was successful at school, but hated it. She did not hate the school work, she hated the bullying. A friend Lexi Leber recalls her friends “had to make like a wall, we had people surrounding her, and she had to be in the middle because people would come by and try to hit her and push her into a wall or something.” This all happened because she had sent a photo of her breasts to her boyfriend in 2010. A girl from another school saw this picture on the boys phone and sent it to everyone in Witsell`s school as well as six other local schools. People created a “Shields Middle School Burn Book” and a “Hope Hater Page” on MySpace. The school called in Witsell's parents and brought the issue to their attention. The school had a social worker talk with Witsell and made her sign a “no harm” contract which stated that Witsell would speak with an adult before she harmed herself or others. However, the school did not notify Mr. and Mrs. Witsell about this, they did not even know Hope Witsell was having those thoughts. The school did not communicate with the parents. After a summer off, Hope Witsell went back to school and the bullying became even worse, but Witsell hid her emotions. That September Hope Witsell ended her life. Even after her death the bullying continued- people would post on …show more content…
MySpace and Facebook things like “‘I can't believe that whore would do that.’” The school and the police did nothing about Witsell’s death. “Be buddies not bullies” was Kenneth Weishuhn`s favorite quote according to NBC affiliate KTIV`s online article “Family: Bullies Pushed NW Iowa Teen to Take Own Life.” The article states that Kenneth Weishuhn was a 14 year old at South O'Brien High School in northwest Iowa. He had friends, until he became openly gay in 2012- his freshman year. The bullying began because of this, his sister recalls it was first with boys in his class but then it escalated to much more. Hate groups on Facebook were created and targeted gay males- specifically Weishuhn. The pages were filled with Weishuhn`s peers. The bullying then began to take another course- phone calls. Kenneth Weishuhn would receive death threats through anonymous phone calls. Weishuhn committed suicide later that year and his mother recall that he never showed signs of being unhappy. She largely believes bullying drove her son to do end his life so abruptly. Like stated before, cyberbullying is not just on one area of the country, or even the world.
It is a growing problem that is becoming more common by the day. all of the cases above have ended in death. This is why the cases are so newsworthy, however many cases do not end in death either. This does not mean those cases are not as important. Any case of cyber bullying needs to be handled and taken seriously. A person should not have to end his or her life for a case to be taken care of, which unfortunately is the case for many people being cyberbullied. Cyberbullying is seen at Madera High as well as across the United States and the
world. Cyberbullying and harassment has become a growing issue at Madera High. Social media has become very popular among the youth of the world as a place for people to express themselves and share common interests with friends and family. Social media however has become a source of bullying and harassment perhaps enhancing the terms. A survey conducted at Madera High says that 71% of students are active on social media. Students are constantly tweeting, facebooking, or posting pictures on instagram and utilizing these sources to interact and express thought with their peers. Then there are also peers of these students that post negative thoughts and embarrassing pictures that intentionally hurt the feelings of their peers. The cyber bullying and harassment that flows so smoothly in social media has slowly become an outstanding issue. How does a student sit in class and learn successfully learn without thinking about something that is said online the night before that might have really hurt this student? This is an obvious problem among the world that needs to be settled now. The students at Madera high believe cyberbullying to be “ its when a person says or posts mean things in an effort to discourage or make fun of another person,” or “Negatively mentioning or putting down a person online.” Cyberbullying is becoming very common among the students at Madera high. Among the 71% of the students at Madera high who are active on social media, the survey conducted at Madera high also says that 9% of those students have been bullied online. This 9% is not just a group of people that interact with each other but rather spread from leadership roles in the school to the students that aren't involved in any clubs or sports. An anonymous student at Madera high replies to the survey question: “Have you ever been cyber bullied/ harassed? Please explain,” telling about her experience, “yes a girl who was in a leadership position spread rumors about me and continually talked about me over social media.” There was also another experience shared by another anonymous student sharing how they were bullied, “yes I was sent disturbing messages, called a fat bitch, called a fag.” These testimonies of two students at Madera high give two different examples of how a student can be bullied online. Approximately 6.3% students at Madera high witness cyberbullying according to the survey conducted. However is this cyberbullying always intentional or can these post be based on emotion and be irrational or be posted without realizing the consequences or possible outcomes of a simple post online. Students actively use social media and can sometimes post something that they may not mean or regret. A survey conducted at Madera high says the 31% of students have posted a rude comment or post online and have regretted their decision of posting it. An anonymous student at Madera high says, “I tweeted something about my coach and got called into the office for it. I later realized it was very rude and hurt her feelings.” This shows that not all posts that may be considered cyberbullying may not be intentional. However, not all cases are like these and leaves about 25% of the students who took the survey at Madera high are scared to use social media and worry about being bullied online for maybe expressing themselves. Students that use social media as a tool to hurt others do not give people the chance to express themselves and utilize social media for its rightful purpose. With cyberbullying becoming a major issue steadily growing at Madera High the survey asked the question to the students at Madera high how do they think the issue should be solved? An anonymous student says, “depending on the severity of the situation the attacker should be suspended from school, expelled from the website they used to do the cyberbullying, and serve some possible jail time.” Students believe this should happen, maybe more or less depending on the severity of the situation. The students that are being bullied may be affected in different ways. Some students may be dealing with family problems or different situations outside of school and if other students are piling on them on top of outside of school issues, how would the student be able to focus in class or even want to go to school? How far should the bullying be allowed to go before help is given to the student? 65% of students who participated in the survey believe that teachers or staff should help students if the student's attendance or participation is affected by the bullying. Why must a student's attendance be the extent of helping a student in need of mental support or the problem being resolved entirely? 18% of the students at Madera high believe the bullying is a growing problem at our school and believe staff should help because an anonymous student says, “yes, they may be able to provide needed support to the victim and help end the problem.”
In class we have talked about the aftermath of reporting sexual assault. In many cases this is not an easy experience for the victims. In fact, many people are discouraged from reporting because the length of the process and because the likelihood of justice is so low. We have discussed this as it relates to college campus rapes as well as many other kinds of violence. In both cases discussed in the film, the girls were harassed and bullied online and in person. They were called liars and attention seekers. They were both called sluts and whores, while the boys received little to no negative attention. The bullying got so out of hand that Audrie took her own life. According to the film, Daisy attempted suicide multiple times as well. There was so much victim-blaming present in this film. We talked a lot about this in class, but I have never seen it first hand. While I knew that it happened a lot, I found it hard to believe that it would happen in cases like these. I wanted to believe that we as a society would support the girls going through such a horrific experience, but I was clearly wrong. In addition, both of the girls started to believe the nasty things that were being said about them online. They were constantly hearing these negative comments and eventually they started to accept them a true statements. This something we have discussed in class and read in the book throughout this
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King Jr. knew it was better to speak up than to stay quiet. This is a lesson that needs to be taught throughout both middle schools and high schools. All around the world, suicide rates are going up, and most of these cases relate back to bullying. The children often do not say anything because they are afraid the bullying will only get worse. When nothing changes, they are driven to suicide to relieve the pain that they are feeling. As Marge Piercy examines in “Barbie Doll,” students are picked on for being or looking different than others. No matter what type of bullying it may be, it hurts people more than they are willing to let on. All forms of bullying, whether it be in schools, physical, verbal, or online, have an impact on teen suicide ideation.
Bullying is an action of a group or an individual that repeatedly harming another person either physically or socially. Sometimes these actions are plainly visible, but other time these actions can be covert, such as ostracizing or spreading hurtful rumors. A person who has been constantly bullied sometimes can be very devastated; may commit some act that is totally unexpected. Ja’Meya Jackson, a fourteen years old girl, was a school basketball player, an honor student, and she was also charged with forty-five felony charges. One morning on a school bus ride, Ja’Meya Jackson decided to pull her mother’s handgun out on twenty-two students “just to scare them” Jackson claimed, but pulling a handgun out to scare other kids is not something that a
Phoebe Prince is a name some of us might not know or remember, but in 2010 her name and picture were everywhere. Phoebe Prince was an Irish immigrant who moved to South Hadley, Massachusetts. In her new high school she was the subject of malicious bullying by her classmates, both at school and online. This bullying would eventually drive Phoebe to hang herself. Bullying in schools and online has become a serious problem in our country. . According to cyberbullyinghotline.com, 20 percent of those cyberbullied think about committing suicide, while 1 in 10 victims attempt it. With rates like this, the question left to be answered is, when is bullying “just kids being kids “,
But only those who commit suicide will have their cases of cyber-bullying taken seriously by the police. This goes against the very function of law to prevent wrongs. What good is just punishing action after its done. Even then It very hard to process as cyber bullies can hide behind the internet and mask their identity. The globalization of the technology sector makes it hard to track down the individual as the social network servers could be in several different countries with different jurisdiction. Then the Internet Service Provider could be located in another state. ("Cyber-Bullying: Its Recent”) A big part of the problem is first acknowledging the proper legal authority to do something about it. Some say it is the school. ("Cyber-Bullying in Schools: Clashing Expectations Over the School 's Role”) So who is responsible? Is cyber-bullying already banned by existing
Being cyberbullied is a reality that mostly teens and young adults of today have to face but it can happen to anyone at any age, with many suffering from it but not speaking up about it. If not dealt with properly it can lead to numerous mental health problems and in extreme cases even suicide of the victim or others being injured. Thus becoming a serious problem that needs more attention by adults, media, and schools alike. With the advancement in technology and social media becoming a bigger part of these teens lives everyone needs to be educated on a subject like this from young to old. In a quote by Chris McComas, father of Grace McComas, a teen who had committed suicide, posted “No longer does a bully say something nasty in the schoolyard
Over the last few years, there has been a lot of discussion and debate over the topic of sexting. It has become a widespread phenomenon, the number of teenage girls and boys, men and women who participate are rapidly increasing, and with this too comes the rise of moral panic within societies. Individuals within the communities are becoming more and more fearful, afraid and shocked at this new form of youth culture hysteria. Although young people ‘expressing’ their sexuality has become much more open and free as of the last decade or so, the real uproar of panic is due to the risks they involving themselves in as well as the damage and harm they are inflicting on themselves, whether they know it or not.
Schools need to establish a no tolerance policy towards cyberbullying and strictly enforce it too. A victim of cyberbullying needs to try and resolve the issue on their own first, before they talk to someone or get help. Students should have the privilege of talking to someone like a teacher, that they feel comfortable around and trust. This is important thing to remember, because they need to be able to talk to someone about this when it is happening, so the teacher can put an end to the bullying that is occurring. Some students may have the fright of sharing on what is happening and this can be, for the reason that they have a fear of getting into trouble, the bullying could get worse, and no one would believe them (Hitchcock,
Each year, schools are having to update the Codes of Conduct in order to keep up with the bullying that is occurring on social media. Schools have failed to effectively monitor and take action upon what these students have been doing to others and what others do in return. This has resulted in many lost lawsuits, in which schools were held liable for not taking appropriate action on what occurs outside of campus. School districts therefore must take more responsibility over what happens to the students, on and off campus. Districts argue that such instances are outside of the school’s control, however these victims are still their students. In the case of Ryan Halligan, a teenage boy who committed suicide at the young age of 13, Albert D. Lawton
After being relentlessly tormented online for ten months, Rebecca Sedwick, a twelve-year-old girl from Florida, committed suicide by jumping from the roof of a defunct concrete plant on September 10, 2013. Two teenage girls, Katelyn Roman and Guadalupe Shaw, both older than Rebecca, were charged with felony aggravated stalking upon further investigation into Rebecca’s death. These charges were dropped the week of November 18, 2013, with prosecutors unable to compensate for “a lack of evidence” (Kemp). The controversy over saddling minors with felony charges has caused quite a stir in the media. The correct response to cyberbullying is a growing area of contention.
Teen Suicide edited by Christine Watkins is a non-fiction book on suicide which gives a lot of insight into the causes behind teen suicide. The section of the book called “Teen Suicide Is a Major Health Problem” was only seven pages long, but answered many questions on suicide. The first introduction section gives basic facts and numbers about suicide and suicide rates. Going further, the book mentions behavioral signs and predisposing characteristics that may cause suicidal thoughts. Finally, this chapter of the book goes into ways to prevent teen suicide.
The initial reason why anyone who cyberbullies should be criminally accused is due to their harmful behavior that can result in people getting seriously hurt both mentally and physically. If the bully is convicted, cyberbullying can be stopped! As directly stated in the Radio Interview of source one “Cyberbullying can also lead to kids getting physically injured.” This statement further emphasizes why the outcome of this act should be punishable by law. Due to the fact that individuals face violent behavior, it could mean suicide for the victim. In no shape or form should this be tolerated since lives are taken due to the
What is Cyber bullying? Cyber bullying is just like regular bullying but instead of bullying face to face, it’s done on the internet. In America, cyber bullying has gotten out of hand during the past year. Unfortunately kids who are bullied through the internet have a difficult time getting away from the bullying. Children today walk the street while thinking or knowing they will get picked on. This has also caused teens to commit suicide. Usually teens that are the bullies have a lower self-esteem than the person they’re bulling. Teens today use the internet more than anything excluding sleep. In two thousand and eight young teens ages 12-17 had access to the internet. Cyber bullying needs to stop before more of our children hurt themselves. Studies show that most likely a female would be the most bullied. A high percent of teens have been angry, frustrated, sad, embarrassed, scared and shockingly a small percent weren't even bothered.
Some people think it is a very serious issue and others think that it is just overrated. The problem is most people cannot agree on a solid statistic of cyber bullying in the U.S. Everyone has a different number or percentage of cyber bullying in the U.S. “Kids, due to their inherent lack of a developed world view, say "mean or hurtful" things all the time. Trying to portray this as "evidence" of widespread bullying is disingenuous.” (Cushing 1). This is a popular view point among many people. It is also a valid view point. “i-Safe may be a non-profit, but it still sells subscriptions to instructional software through its website. i-Safe has a vested interest in portraying bullying as worse than it actually is.” (Cushing 1). This is another very valid point the author is trying to make. Some companies will mislead you to thinking a problem is worse than it is just to make a profit. On the opposite side of this view point is that cyber bullying is a very serious issue and is getting worse in our country. Some people are very worried in our country about the harmful effects that cyber bullying can have on our youth. “One of the biggest concerns about cyberbullying, however, is the effects on victims ' mental health outcomes, particularly suicide and depression.” (Edwards, Kontostathis and Fisher). This is a very valid point why cyber bullying is a serious issue. Both sides of this argument make valid point but
This stereotyping can be dangerous because it consistently shows young girls as sluts and young guys as evil. Not to mention, the media always seems to use an example of a heterosexual couple being the ‘sexters’ where the female sends and the male receives. The media almost never portrays homosexual couples in this way. The media use these stereotypical representations to build on the characters in their story. They may use this to antagonize a male character for sending the pictures to his friends or even to antagonize a female character for sending the picture in the first place. Many times, this classic example of teen sexting is thought of as educational by promoting abstinence from sexting. Shows and movies with storylines like this are basically saying, ‘If you sext, everyone will see it. You will be bullied. You will become depressed. Your family and friends will be ashamed of you, and you will commit suicide.” This further develops the moral panic in parents by agreeing that this is something that will kill their child. It validates their feelings and gives them something that they can hold above their child’s head. It also pushes the moral panic onto the teens themselves by seeing the issue in the media which basically influences their every move. Teens then see the sexting ‘problem’ as an actual concern and not just that their parents are being overprotective. This also further develops gender roles in the media, like what was discussed in class. What’s interesting about Degrassi: The Next Generation is that the show is made for teen consumption. The show is made for teenagers and centered around teenagers, so when they write the story that they want to tell about sexting, it’s negative. For adults, sexting can be portrayed positively for some reason, and almost never follows the storyline of someone’s pictures being