New California law expels students for internet taunting

California is cracking down on students who bully other students over the internet or via text messaging. A new law which allows schools to expel students who commit cyberbullying takes effect in California Jan. 1:

By Peter Hecht
phecht@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008

It was bad enough when middle school students in Novato last year harassed and ridiculed 14-year-old Olivia when she suffered a seizure on campus.

But her torment only worsened when the girl went online and discovered a MySpace page full of taunts, slurs and threats directed at her. Her classmates had dubbed the page "Olivia Haters."

The case of the Novato teen would inspire a book, "Letters to a Bullied Girl: Messages of Healing and Hope." It would also stir a hand-wringing discussion over the emotional cruelty of school bullying and the power of the Internet to make it even more severe.

On Jan. 1, a new California law will give schools authority to suspend or expel students for bullying fellow students over the Internet, in text-messaging or by other electronic means.

Assembly Bill 86 by Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, adds cyberbullying to school disciplinary codes that previously defined bullying only in terms of direct physical or verbal harassment.

Lieu said he sponsored the legislation out of concern that the Internet has become a prime tool among students "to intimidate, harass or bully another person at school."

"You're dealing with some very fragile egos at these age levels," Lieu said. "Some people can be driven over the edge and do some horrible things."

Among those horrible things was the tragic death of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old Missouri girl who hanged herself in 2006 after being spurned by someone she thought was an online love interest.

Lori Drew, the mother of one of Megan's friends, harassed the girl by creating a phony MySpace page under the name of a fictional "Josh Evans." She was convicted in November of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers to inflict emotional distress.

In Novato, the wounds for Olivia were so searing that her mother moved her to another junior high school, only to have her daughter face more harassment after her new classmates learned of the "Olivia Haters" page.

After Olivia's mother, Kathleen Gardner, told the San Francisco Chronicle about her daughter's devastation, something remarkable happened.

The family was deluged with sympathetic letters from people young and old who told of their own suffering from school bullying - or who apologized for years-old acts of bullying.

The letters became the basis for "Letters to a Bullied Girl," published by Harper Collins.

"I am a parent of a 13-year-old girl who was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit this year after a suicide attempt or 'bullycide' attempt," read one letter, signed "A distraught mother." "I don't want other parents and children to experience this fate. So what is being done? And what can we do to change this?"

Gardner said in a recent interview that she had spoken to several "parents of kids who have been bullied or cyberbullied or both, and committed suicide."

AfterAB86 was signed into law, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said in a statement that "intimidation or harassment ... will not be tolerated at any school, on any playground" or online.

"Whether it's hurtful e-mails or abusive actions, we must protect those who suffer at the hands of bullies," O'Connell said.

The cyberbullying legislation was backed by the California Teachers Association and California PTA, the Anti- Defamation League, the American Electronics Association and Microsoft Corp.

"We see cyberbullying as a threat to creating a safe online environment for children," said Doug Free, a Northern California spokesman for Microsoft.

According to a June 2007 Pew Research Center study, nearly one-third of teenagers using the Internet reported being annoyed or harassed.

Thirteen percent said they had received threatening or aggressive e-mails. Another 13 percent said rumors about them were spread online. And 6 percent said embarrassing photographs were posted online without their permission.

At Sacramento's McClatchy High School, Principal Cynthia Clark said student altercations on campus often start online.

"We have had conflict resolutions in which we traced back disagreements to when they were on MySpace or text messaging," she said. "It's another vehicle kids use to insult their friends in immature ways."

Clark said students have come to her office with cell phone text messages to document threats.

"They say, this student is saying this about me. Can you help me stop it?" Clark said. McClatchy junior Sydney Tibbitts, 16, said she saw a classmate reduced to sobs after unflattering photographs were circulated online by fellow students.

"She was so upset. She had no idea who it was (sending out material) and she was scared,Tibbitts said.

In September, the Vallejo City Unified School District passed a sweeping policy banning students from using computers or cell phones to send harassing or threatening messages, or to cheat on exams.

District spokesman Jason Hodge said officials became alarmed by students sending text or instant messages to incite campus fights. In some cases, he said, altercations were incited by students wanting to make cell phone videos to post on YouTube.

"A kid would go up to another kid, say it's time to fight and then post it online," said Hodge, who said the district's policy also bans videotaping without permission. "Bullying is an age-old event. It's just gone onto the Internet because that's where the kids are now. And schools have to catch up."