SCHOOL Cyberbullies lead new era of torment

Kids have figured out how to bully using the latest technology.
By AMAN BATHEJA
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
To grown-ups, the word bully may evoke the memory of a sixth-grader who looked old enough to vote or a 13-year-old who advertised a classmate's phone number & quot;for a good time & quot; on the girls bathroom wall.
But in this wireless age, who needs fists when you've got instant messenger?
And while the ink on the bathroom wall may fade, a personal Web site can last for years.
Today's young cyberbullies don't bother with face-to-face intimidation. Kids everywhere have figured out that they can be far more vicious bullying through the Internet, cell phones and other high-tech mediums. And they are less likely to get caught.
In New York, pupils set up an online poll to find out who was the biggest & quot;ho & quot; in their school.
In New Jersey, pupils maintained a Web site for two years that made fun of a classmate.
And recently, a high school student in Fort Worth, Texas, contacted police because her name was on a & quot;hit list & quot; on a Web site composed by two classmates, according to a police report.
Fort Worth police said the situation is still under investigation.
Authorities say such examples of cyberbullies are no longer rare. In fact, they may soon become the local bully's preferred method of torment.
& quot;This is coming to a school near you, & quot; said Glen Stutzky, a Michigan State University professor of social work who studies school violence.
& quot;I think within the next year or two, it'll be a major issue. & quot;
Psychological damage
The extreme cyberbullying cases that have made headlines overshadow the minor ones that occur more often, such as forwarding private e-mails without the writer's permission or spreading rumors on message boards.
Although the target rarely receives physical harm, cyberbullying can be far more psychologically damaging than traditional bullying, experts say.
& quot;It used to be if you had a bad day of school, usually you could come home and have a safe haven, & quot; Stutzky said. & quot;Now it follows you home and to your bedroom. & quot;
Cyberbullying also creates a barrier between the bully and the victim, reducing the likelihood that the bully will feel guilty about what they've done.
& quot;You're separated from the target and you can't see the effect it's having. You can just keep going on and on and on, & quot; Stutzky said.
It also can bring out the bully in those you least expect.
School counselor Sandy Neeson began seeing cyberbullying cases at a Fort Worth middle school in 2003. Some of the offenders turned out to be otherwise shy, nonconfrontational pupils, completely unlike the traditional bully profile, she said.
Several stories
The story of Ghyslain Raza is one of the most publicized cyberbullying cases.
The Canadian teenager's nightmare began when he videotaped himself wielding a golf club like a light saber, pretending he was a Jedi knight.
Classmates found the tape and put it online. It quickly became one of the most downloaded images on the Internet.
For Raza, who became known as & quot;The Star Wars Kid, & quot; the taunting from classmates was so bad that he dropped out of school and entered a children's psychiatric ward, according to the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail.
An even more extreme case of cyberbullying occurred in Texas.
In 2001, a former high school student at Lake Highlands High School in the Richardson school district started a Web site for students to chat on. According to Salon.com, the message board he created on LHStudents.com soon turned savage as several visitors took aim at one female student's disability and her weight. Soon, the girl's car was egged, and a crass insult identical to one from the site was apparently written in shaving cream in front of her house.
Then, a large plastic bottle filled with acid was thrown at her front door. When the student's mother opened the door, she received minor burns, investigators reported.
Authorities said they believed the actions are linked to the Web site.
Difficult to intervene
School officials' ability to intervene in cyberbullying is limited, because it's hard to identify the bully and the threats are usually made outside of school.
And with the rising popularity of camera-equipped cell phones and text-messaging, cyberbullying is expected to become more common and the bullies more innovative.
Many school districts have adopted rigid cell phone policies and placed filters on school computers.
Almost immediately after encountering her first case in 2003, Neeson began addressing cyberbullying in her Bully Busters program.
It hasn't become a serious problem at her school, she said, but pupils must grasp that bullying online is as serious as bullying in person.
& quot;Students might just think this isn't happening at school, so it's just something they have to deal with, & quot; Neeson said. & quot;If it affects their emotional stability, it affects us. & quot;
XThis report includes material from The Record of Bergen County, N.J.