Safe Schools Project assignment reflection

Carlos A. Vasquez

National University
 As aged as it may seem, bullying continues to be a problem that exists in schools. In past

days, bullying came primarily in the form of physical aggression. As depicted in films, kids

would come home with bruises and black eyes because they were shoved in a locker or got in a

fight afterschool. Students were also verbally harassed, either through spreading rumors or

insulting each other face to face. Either way, these agressions have yet to cease and continue to

be a problem in our schools. As the years progress, we are introduced with new mediums of

communications. While these technological advancements have helped mankind in many ways,

they have also allowed aggressors a new medium to bully others in a way that is very difficult to

address. This form of harassment is known as cyberbullying. It is the most relevant form of

harassment amongst our student body. I believe that this form of bullying is often brushed off

and dismissed by both students and teachers, so I chose this topic in an attempt to shed light on

the issues of cyberbullying. This epidemic known as cyberbullying occurs way too often, and is

overlooked and forgotten by many.

I decided to speak to educators in my presentation. As previously mentioned,

cyberbullying can be a difficult issue to deal with due to the fact that educators are not typically

given access to the lives of our students through electronic mediums such as social media, video

streaming, and even video game chats. I feel that not only are educators unaware of the many

ways a child can be bullied, but they are also unaware of how often it happens on many

uncommon forms of communication. It is frightening to think it could be happening to many of

our students on a day to day basis without our knowing.

 In order to educate my fellow educators on how much of a problem cyberbullying is, I

have listed a number of statistics to help them realize how frequently this occurs. It is truly

shocking to know how often this occurs. I have also listed statistics that appeal directly to

students in the classroom, listing how cyberbullying has been linked to poor classroom

performance. Because many educators are unaware of how and where students experience

cyberbullying, I have included the apps and websites where students may be experiencing

cyberbullying on, including very obscure sites like Twitch and Roblox, sites that would not

generally be considered “social” but are still subject to cyberbullying. To help educators figure

out how they can realize if student is being cyberbullied, I included a list of signs and tells that

students might give off when they are being harassed on their phones or devices. I have also

added a call to action for teachers to take if they see that a student is being bullied. The links on

the page are all clickable, and the bullet points on the call to action are clickable as well.