Photo by: Andrew Scott
There are a few things that you should expect from your school in regards to cyber bullying, but one point that I can’t stress enough is that if you are not getting results from the faculty of your school do not hesitate to contact the Superintendent of the school district. This is something that most parents don’t do they don’t follow through if the school administrators are ineffective.
The school should start investigating the situation as soon as it is brought to their attention. Once they have done a full investigation they should come to you with the results and have a plan of action.
Make sure that the school does not have a joint meeting with both the victim and the bully; this is not something that should be mediated between the two children. In this instance the school should talk to each child individually. Speak to the victim first get their full side of the story, making sure that they have a plan to keep the child safe from the bully. Also a notice should be sent out to all teachers at the school to be on the look out. When talking to the bully let them know that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. Then set up consequences within the schools parameters (recess detention, detention, suspension, or expulsion depending in the severity of the bullying) Also make sure that the school notifies the parents of the bullies as well. Coming from the school this is usually a more effective way to approach parents of the bullies.
Make sure that the educators do not blame the victim. It is easy for educators seeing the victim acting out of frustration and annoyance. Make sure that the victim knows that it is not their fault that they were being bullied. Reassure them that they will be taken care of. Also if the victim lacks social skills or is a bad communicator, make sure that they have a counselor or school official that they can talk to whom they trust, often thinking out a plan with the child is helpful and it helps them to regain some power in the situation.
Give the school a reasonable amount of time to solve the problem but make sure to keep all correspondence between the bully and the victim, also keep any written complaints that you may have submitted to the school. Should you ever have to go to the Principal or the Superintendent these are valuable resources to have at your disposal.
