When on the Internet, students consider a lot of things: cat videos, Twitter, and Facebook. All the while, no one thinks of MCPS’s “Cybercivility” campaign.
“Cybercivility” is a campaign Superintendent Joshua Starr started last January after he was harassed and bombarded online with crude “tweets” from students trying to convince him to close school. Although the campaign may mean well, it is too late, has not helped those bullied in the past and was started with wrong intentions.
According to a December 2013 open letter from Starr to parents, Starr introduced the term “cybercivility” and the anti-cyberbulliyng campaign where MCPS “can help our children grow into responsible and caring adults who interact with one another in a civil, respectful way.”
Yes, Starr did not deserve to face offensive tweets and deal with cyberbullying and be deeply offended by students much younger than he is who were clearly just acting out of childish frustration. It is also somewhat selfish of Starr to start a campaign immediately after he was bullied, but not sooner when many students have been bullied for years.
According to bullystatistics.org, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens and adolescents, taking 4,400 young lives a year. In 2010, the suicide rate among adolescents had grown higher than 50 percent over the past 30 years. Starr neglected any sort of campaigns against cyberbullying or suicide until he faced it himself. Because of this, for some students, it is too late.
Even though many people have suffered from cyberbullying in previous years, and while it is important, it has been on the decline and has taken attention away from other forms of bullying.
According to an October 2013 Time article, cyberbullying is still prevalent, with 49 percent of people aged 14 to 24 claiming to have been cyberbullied, but it has declined drastically from 56 percent in 2011.
While MCPS should be campaigning to end cyberbulling, there are other forms of bullying that warrant the same amount of, if not more, attention than Starr’s anti-cyberbullying committee, especially if cyberbullying is no longer on a dramatic rise. In fact, bullying inside schools is much more common.
According to nobullying.com, over 77 percent of all students have been bullied verbally, mentally and even physically. The rise of verbal abuse and physical bullying in schools proves that not all bullying happens online, and that in-school bullying deserves an equal amount of attention.
MCPS’ “Cybercivility” campaign is selfish and too little too late. Starr started the campaign in response to the bullying he faced online, and it is unfortunate that he had to become a victim in order to see how terrible it really is. With physical bullying on the rise, and the suicide rate climbing, Starr should focus on anti-bullying and suicide prevention campaigns for those who face bullying in all forms.
