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Valley schools turn to local cops to fight cyber bullying
Mahoning Valley schools are battling new forms of cyber bullying every day, with many school officials turning to their local police departments for help.
Part of the problem, however, is defining what conduct qualifies as criminal.
“A lot of stuff can be said – nasty and sad and awful and terrible – but it’s not criminal,” Jack Nichols, Boardman Township police chief, said Wednesday. “We get complaints of things and we always look to see if it crosses the threshold of making threats to one’s personal safety, security or property.”
Sgt. Kathy Dina, Austintown juvenile detective and school resource officer, said the issue isn’t students expressing their opinions online, it’s the actual verbal attack of other students through text, email, social media or in person.
Nichols said telecommunications harassment, anything done over the Internet or phone, has to reach such a quantity to have an effect on your life.
“If I call you and hang up once, it doesn’t affect your life. If you call 30 times in the middle of the night, then it does,” Nichols said.
Brian Goodin, Poland Township police chief, said he sees rarely sees severe and threatening situations, which could lead to menacing and aggravated menacing charges, resulting from cyber bullying.
The line is often blurred, however, when the attack is two-sided, Goodin said.
According to Ohio law, bullying is defined as “any intentional written, verbal, electronic, or physical act that a student has exhibited toward another particular student more than once.”
A problem in dealing with repeated attacks is the anonymity some of the attackers take through fake social-media accounts.
“It is a tough thing because you don’t know who you’re dealing with,” Nichols said.
Dina said she encourages students to block their harassers.
“Online, I can be whoever I want,” Dina said. “It’s easier to block the account than to subpoena records and anything along those lines.”
Schools and police departments are collaborating to teach students about consequences of improper cyber use and how to handle being the victim of it.
“We start with the bottom and get in the schools and educate before it gets out of hand,” Dina said.
Not only do students benefit from the education about the cyber world in a legal perspective, but parents do as well.
School officials and police officers agree that students need to be monitored when it comes to their Internet use.
“Talk to kids and tell them not to do stuff that’s going to get them in trouble,” Goodin said.
Once addressed by parents, officers said the problems do generally stop.
“The Constitution guarantees the government can’t prohibit your right to free speech, but in your house, you can tell your kids, ‘I don’t want you saying that,’” Nichols said.
Dina said she is seeing success in schools policing the matter. Although Austintown schools cannot enforce anything outside of the schools, they are handling what they can within the schools, and punishments discourage students from continuing the behavior, she said.