California lawmakers consider cyberbullying bill

School bullies who use the Internet or text messaging to harass fellow students could be kicked out of school under a bill being considered by the California Legislature.

Assembly Bill 86, introduced by Assemblyman Ted Lieu of Torrance, passed the Senate on Monday by a 21-11 vote and now heads back to the Assembly for consideration of Senate amendments, according to an Associated Press report. If the Assembly approves the Senate amendments, the bill will be sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Lieu's bill would allow students to be suspended or expelled from school for bullying that occurs via electronic communication, including cell phones, computers, or pagers.

Experts say the biggest obstacle to combating cyberbullying is that children are unlikely to report it. Unlike real-life bullying, there is often no witness or physical scar to alert parents or teachers to a cyberbullying situation.

The issue came to national focus last year when a newspaper reported the details a cyberbullying incident in which a teenage girl committed suicide. Megan Meier, who had a history of depression, hanged herself in 2006 after a falling out with someone named "Josh" whom she thought was a 16-year-old boy on MySpace. As it turns out, "Josh" didn't exist; the persona was allegedly created by a woman named Lori Drew, the mother of one of Meier's former friends, to harass the girl.

In November, Meier's hometown of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., passed a law banning online harassment. Offenders can face up to 90 days in jail, a $500 fine, or both.

[Vega_Obscura]

so they're going to take children who obviously have poor social skills out of the place where they are supposed to develop social skills?

Government - 1
Future of Mankind - 0

wow, we pay these people for this...?

[humanssssss]

Kids are required to go to school. They have very limited options in their mobility and the school should have the right to impose any kind of rules and education necessary to protect the children. But to make this a law for the general public, it is not only a waste of resource which we can't afford but a punch in the first amendment of the constitution. What is cyberbullying to one is not to another. I suspect this is the same people who pass the 422 law.

It is better to educate the children of tomorrow the strength of our democracy not to criminalize every bit of speech.

From 422 to sexual harassmant to libel/slander to cyberbullying ... when will the state give people the right to be themselves.

Continue doing this, for every man is a criminal in the eyes of the laws. And with the Internet, all information is stored and can be accessed if subpoena or court order is permitted. So the cyberbullying a person did 3 years ago can come and criminalize him if the death of said person today link in some form or fashion to cyberbullying of 3 years ago. Much the same way a person who couldn't get over a lover saying no and commit suicide 6 months later realizing there's nothing worth living for!

I want to see how many more citizens California want to put in prison. The prison industry is bringing out their calculator determining how much more they can make.

[Lerianis]

You hit the nail on the head, humanssssss. Frankly, I looked at the case of the girl who was driven to sucide as a case of a girl who was emotionally and mentally weak, and who shouldn't have been on the internet unsupervised in the first place.
Basically, I blamed her parents, NOT the people who harassed her (and really, that was the definition of 'harassment' to me but a distasteful joke on the girl).

[jag0]

Yea because letting bullies torture other kids is soooooooooooo much better then making them face the consequences of their actions right?

[The_Decider]

You might want to consider taking some critical thought courses.

Kicking students out of school for what is likely off campus behavior? Only a moron would think that is appropriate.

[Lerianis]

The_Decider is right on this issue. Frankly, there is a good chance that the people who are 'harassing others' are being harassed by their parents or physically abused by their parents themselves..... or they are looking for attention which they don't get when they are 'good' but that they do get when they are 'bad'.

I was a 'bully' in my first 3 years of elementary school, and the fact is: I was not getting any attention from anyone at that time, so I was acting out to get that attention. Once my parents and others started giving me more attention, I stopped acting out.

Bullying usually = plea for attention.

[pgp_protector]

So if I don't like one of the kids, I can spoof there name & bully someone else & have them kicked out ? cool

[Imalittleteapot]

Yes, Yes you can.

[humanssssss]

Then they'll create a law requiring people to identify themselves. Any violations will result in jail time. Laws after laws will eventually turn America into a communist state.

[imacpwr]

Even chief commander of the Swiss military does it...!

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/internal_affairs/Army_chief_insists_on_right_to_privacy.html?siteSect=1511&sid=9343054&cKey=1216644130000&ty=st

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/internal_affairs/Army_chief_suspended_amid_sex_scandal_charges.html?siteSect=1511&sid=9355509&cKey=1216884883000&ty=st

[batvette]

OMGzers, has it really come to this? What shall we call the next gen, the "milquetoast" gen? Gen P, for pansified? I'm 46, and a product of California public schools, and (puts on Dana Carvey's grumpy old man garb) In MY DAY if you didn't come home with a fat lip or bloody nose once a month, you were a shut in! Zero tolerance is what got us Columbine, don't these nitwit legislaters realize this? If those kids had been given their comeuppance and found there are people in the world that will hand you a beatdown if you mouth off to them- and conversely there are fights you must have the courage to fight- they wouldn't sit home fantasizing what it would be like to take a gun to school! When I was a boy, we used to gather in a plum orchard on a hill above Santa Clara Valley on cold misty mornings, and gut shoot each other with Daisy BB guns! It left a helluva welt but we learned a lesson, whatever it was!
Now I see on TV a kid took a BB pistol to school in Santee, CA, and it made the local TV news! There were half a dozen sheriff cars in front of the school and he didn't even take it out of his bag- he was going to trade it for a video game.
By insulating our kids from the school of hard knocks, we'll have a whole generation with about 3% being closet cases going "tick, tick, tick...." as they never acted out their frustration, and 97% being too scared to have stood up to them.
And their school shooting will be 700 kids taken out with a shoulder fired nuke. You heard it here first. :-)

[Lerianis]

No, batvette, that is NOT the reason that Columbine happened. Those two boys who did the Columbine massacre: they were being abused, physically and emotionally, by their parents and peers.

THAT is the reason why Columbine happened, NOT teaching children that there is no reason for physical violence in real life, period and done with, unless someone physically attacks YOU first, as I taught my children.
Frankly, 'giving someone a beatdown because they mouth off to you' is not right. I have had children ARRESTED for doing that, rightly according to their OWN PARENTS.

[batvette]

what do you call abuse? spakings? I know my father could have been arrested a dozen times over for abuse I received. I don't condone it but I think the shift to lack of discipline has resulted in the undeniably absurd behaviour most kids today exhibit. I confess to be fairly ignorant of the details behind Columbine so may have been shooting my mouth off on an issue I knew little about. However I'd stand behind the underlying concept that kids in this "zero tolerance" for violence at school society are going to be problematic if they aren't experiencieng the personal trials of an occaisional bloody nose.
As for your kids, do you mean your kids mouthed off to a bigger kid, the other kid hit them, and you had that child arrested? Well in that case they're yours to parent how you wish but will you or the law be there the next time? As an adult I don't get in fights anymore and would call the law if assaulted- but I don't pretend that they can bring me back to life if I insult the wrong person in the wrong time and place. "I'll call the cops/my parents" is not a good position to rest on on that side of town! Do you realize there are grown men who spend many hours of their life training in martial arts studios how to take another person's life with their bare hands in just two or three moves, and often walk around just waiting to try it? 25 years ago I was one and stopped before the third move, thank goodness, and the sound of that guy choking on his blood haunted me so much I never fought again. I'm not trying to sound all macho but that started over someone mouthing off. Not everyone shares my restraint or conscience, and I believe a few fistfights as youngsters are an important series of life lessons.

[SteamChip]

"and gut shoot each other with Daisy BB guns! "

Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

But I suppose if some ninny insisted you wear goggles...

Regrettably, so many of these bully situations result in an underreaction (nobody does nuthin' until something really badd happens) or an over-reaction (prison, hard time for the offender).

[batvette]

"But I suppose if some ninny insisted you wear goggles..."

Note where I said "gut shoot".... any participants whose marksmanship was that poor wouldn't have been allowed to play. Daisy BB guns, the one **** variety, have such a low velocity (you can watch the projectile in flight) richochets weren't a danger. This is why we were allowed by dad to play with them. Most of our dads let us shoot the real guns in their presence on the weekend- in those days you could fire a gun in city limits and not summon the swat team for it. Funny tho there was a kid in the neighborhood with what you'd call a "lazy eye", it had been damaged by his brother with a BB gun. Jacques had been looking through a knothole in the fence and his brother thought it would be funny to try and shoot at it. His aim was true. However I don't think legislature can save the Jacques' of the world, as I recall a few years later he was the kid who lost the seat on his BMX bike and despite our advice, continued to ride- and jump- for several days with nothing between the frame and the family jewels, but a fairly sharp, slightly rusted seat post that he was too stupid to even remove or lower.
As morals in those days precluded us rushing around the EMT's and taking a look at how bad the damage was, I can't say whether Jacque's reproductive abilities were lost when he finally took the big jump and landed wrong. The social Darwinist in me certainly hopes so. (an absolutely true story- Jacques, hope your life has brought joy to you!)