Cyberbullying refers to the deliberate humiliation, insults, and threats targeted at a person via the modern means of communication. This form of mockery is widely spread among schoolchildren and teenagers. The difficulty of dealing with this problem is that the First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech and, therefore, could not control even offensive posts in social media (US Const. amend. I). The current paper contains suggestions on how to resolve the occurred case of cyberbullying in the context of the First Amendment.
Talking about the steps that should be undertaken when a student notifies about being bullied, one should pay attention to the case of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969). It implies that the school management cannot punish offenders until they prove that their speech indeed disrupted teaching activities or violated other students’ rights. This case shows that students enjoy rights under the First Amendment. However, Green (2016) informs that all US states have laws prohibiting bullying at schools. These laws also oblige the administration of an educational institution to provide legal assistance to victims (Green, 2016). This way, an official should check the language of speech. This test should verify whether a victim was identified as a representative of a school community (Primack & Johnson, 2017). Besides, officials should decide if the speech was targeted at fellow students and harms the image of an affected person and hinders the learning process (Primack & Johnson, 2017). This step is necessary since it allows to understand if school officials have the right to investigate this situation and undertake some actions.
Secondly, the case of cyberbullying should undergo a reporting procedure. An official should register the complaint, the speech, personal information of the offender and the victim in detail. Therefore, the school official would confirm his or her responsibility for the reported case and the obligation to investigate the problem. Then, the administrator should discuss the situation with all the sides of the conflict. In addition, since pupils are under age, their parents or legitimate representatives should also be engaged.
It seems fair to suppose that the case of cyberbullying should be immediately transferred to court jurisdiction. Some scholars like Sumrall (2015) assume that cyberbullying should be criminalized at the federal level; however, children and teenagers tend to make some mistakes due to their age features. Thus, after the discussion of the existing situation with all sides of the conflict, an official should discipline the wrongdoer, be it a suspension from classes, exception from school, or other measures.
In conclusion, it should be noticed that the First Amendment causes significant impediments to the effective fight with cyberbullying at schools. Officials are deprived of the right to control posts, messages, photos, and videos that students produce. School administration could not restrict the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the US Constitution (Chandran, 2016). Still, educational institutions’ managerial personnel could establish regulations concerning the behavior and the language of students in the campus and outside. This measure facilitates the identification of cyberbullying cases. Finally, if school officials develop a proper strategy of dealing with offensive situations, it would minimize their frequency. The procedure should be comprised of a detailed investigation of complaints, a dialogue between all sides of the conflict, and a punishment proportionate to the deed.
References
Chandran, N. (2016). Crossing the line: When cyberbullying prevention operates as a prior restraint on student speech. University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy, 2016 (2), 277-315.
Green, J.D. (2016). Cyberbullying: Challenging Legal Issues for Schools. National Federation of State High School Associations. Web.
Primack, A. J., & Johnson, K. A. (2017). Student cyberbullying inside the digital schoolhouse gate: Toward a standard for determining where a “School” is. First Amendment Studies, 51 (1), 30-48.
Sumrall, T. (2015). Lethal words: The harmful impact of cyberbullying and the need for federal criminalization. Houston Law Review, 53, 1475-1497. US Const. amend. Amendment № I.