Delaware State Senate passes Cyberbullying bill
Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Updated: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 05:05
The Delaware State Senate passed a bill in April that will lead to the creation of a statewide policy on cyberbullying.
According to a press release from Attorney General Beau Biden (D-Del.), Senate Bill 193 will mandate the Department of Justice and Department of Education work together to determine a set of policies regarding cyberbullying between public school students.
“Thanks to constant communication and social networking, there is no such thing as a ‘schoolyard bully’ anymore,” Biden said. “Kids who face bullies face them all the time–at home, at school and everywhere in between.”
The bill seeks to unify the state school districts’ existing policies, according to Biden. The alignment will allow the Department of Justice to better defend school districts’ rights to discipline students who engage in cyberbullying.
“For schools to be the safe places that children deserve, they must be able to effectively fight bullying that may originate off school grounds, but follows its victims 24 hours a day,” Biden said.
STOP Cyberbullying, an awareness group that educates children about the dangers of the Internet, defines cyberbullying as “when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.” According to the organization’s website, cyberbullying has been linked to physical violence as well as teen suicide.
Delaware is one of 35 states that have legislation on cyberbullying. Delaware’s law, known as the School Bullying Prevention Act, requires all public and charter schools in the state to establish a policy on bullying prevention. The act, passed in 2007, includes electronic forms of bullying.
Newark Sen. David Sokola (D-Del.) introduced the bill to the Senate’s Education Committee April 3. It left the committee on April 25 and passed in the Senate the next day. He said Bill 193 will give Biden’s office legal precedent to begin the policy changing process.
“A lot of the kinds of controls that have worked in other media haven’t been as effective in the online world because of instantaneous and permanent nature, but we know some things have worked,” Sokola said. “And we can’t give up, we need to look at what’s being done to successfully curb cyberbullying elsewhere and use it here.”
Biden said his campaign to change cyberbullying laws will implement four steps, the first of which involved statewide public hearings last month to gather evidence about the disruption cyberbullying causes. School administrators and parents were questioned about the off-campus activity that led to incidents involving children. The hearings, held in every state county, were open to anyone willing to testify.
Biden said the next steps involve the Department of Justice and the Department of Education drafting a policy based on the evidence they acquired during the hearings. The Department of Education will then issue a regulation that requires all public and charter schools to adopt the state’s policy.
Biden and his office will then help to enact legislation that gives the Department of Justice the ability to defend schools in court that use the statewide policy.
Camilla Conlon, a board member for 14 years at Cape Henlopen, a public school district in southern Delaware, said it is difficult for the board members to create effective policy when it comes to cyberbullying.
She said her school district has a discipline dean on staff, which does not actively research the cyberbullying taking place online, but investigates claims if the situation manifests itself in an altercation at school.
“Most of the fights that happen at school happen in the morning when kids get off the bus,” Conlon said. “These are things that have been building up in the community all night. It is not really a fair statement about the atmosphere of Cape.”
She said the nature of cyberbullying is more vicious than traditional bullying. She said cyberbullying is particularly dangerous because the internet allows the bullies to torment their targets at all hours. She said victims of bullying are often unable to get the help they need until the situation becomes violent.
“There is a lot of stuff taking place between the hours of 4 p.m. and 7 a.m. when the students aren’t in school,” Conlon said. “We are trying to make a policy that lets students know they still need to act as students when they are out of school.”
Wendy Lapham, manager of public information for the Christina school district, said the staff in her schools has not noticed many problems with cyberbullying, but she understands the need for a comprehensive policy. She said the school computers have blocked certain websites.
28 comments
Busting into the house whistleblowers house thru the window on WOODS ave in Lancaster Pa, the U.D.security guards take college books, pile his ex-girlfriends gifts of POLO shirts up in the middle of the bed & his 3 U.S.Army medals sitting on the dresser he earned from his 3 honorable discharges vanish. An University of Delaware security guard quickly calls a FREEMASON named OLE' FREEMASON AD CRABLE OF the Lancaster newpaper & OLE FREEMASON AD CRABLE places the whistleblowing prof on the internet 12x & internet black balls & internet black list him 12x. Obtaining a search warrant through social networks based on 2 years of slander by the HACC and the U.D.security this is said about the whistleblower: He is DANGEROUS, aggressive, unstable, on drugs, a time-bomb, a loose cannon, a racist, and he has WEAPONS. The whistlelbower professor was a pacifest, who never owned a gun & never did drugs in his life. A reasonable man & a quiet intellectual. An U.D.security guard had a script in front of him & stated to the whistlelbower professor, "you wanted to blow up the University of Delaware & kill more kids then Virginia tech, didn't you?" The U.D. security guard placed the profs bail at 15x the normal amount. 10 months after an "investigation" ensued on the whistleblowing sociology professor & 3 weeks before the Pa Governor demanded a response to the 2 formal complaints to the EEOC and PHRC, The sociology professor house is broken into 3 weeks prior to the PA Governor ordering Harrisburg Area Community College in Lancaster Pa to answer the 76 counts of harassment & discrimination. Those formal "good faith" complaints:PHRC Case No.200800802 & EEOC Case No.17F200960329. they are based on "academic mobbing/harassment, and a hostile enviroment" He is the 3rd prof to be harassed & discriminated against in 2 years & 4th person if you count the H-O-M-O-S-E-X-U-A-L who was discriminated against & chased off at HACC in Lancaster. Natalie Woolshin esq obtained The U.D. police reports & U.D.security reports are riddled with lies & there is one "TRUSTWORTHY WITNESS' who was calling in to the 2 U.D.security guard he knew, and everything he reported was a lie. Each person lying 2 to 3x & then all of them lying for each other and saying, "the whistleblowing sociology professor was lying". The phone calls & text messages from 5-6 different cell phones the whistleblower recieved vanished. The PA STATE TROOPER RICHARD DRUM STATED, "I have never seen an investigation like this before. This certainly isn't state police protocol nor none I have ever seen before. That U.D.security guard said that stuff to OLE FREEMASON AD CRABLE. The U.D. security guard told OLE FREEMASON AD CRABLE that stuff. We call people. We talk to people. We communicate with people, and we just don't come out and bust into peoples houses. This is weird. 90% of the stuff they took had nothing to do with any charges. You should get it all back. You don't have any guns. They were doing strange stuff. Going through you personal stuff. And taking pictures. They walked across the street in the middle of a weekday to peoples houses they knew were home. They walked directly towards them, and talked to your neighbors as if they knew them. I don't get this. I am just the middle man here. we handle this stuff everyday. this is no big deal. This is strange. I don't know." Appearing before Judge Jerome O. Herlihy in late December of 2010, the judge had this to say to the whistleblowing sociology professor, "What are security guards from the University of Delaware heading up to Lancaster Pa for anyway? Did your attorney even communicate with you at all? He isn't helping you. where did you get this guy at? He is no good. Get rid of him. What kind of deal did these two give you? You are not "DANGEROUS". Jail is for DANGEROUS people and you certainly are not one of them. I am not going to put you in jail. There is nothing wrong with you. You are just depressed. What do they have you on. Yes I will see your evidence. Any evidence you have. What is he whispering to you? tell me. Don't listen to him. This is weird. What are University of Delaware security guards heading to lancaster pa for anyway. You are from York and not from Lancaster. This doesn't make any sense. I don't get this." An illusion, through trickery, created in order to discredit, nullify, silence, and destroy a whistleblower. Agitated, harassed, provoked, baited, lured, and stalked by cell phone after filing formal complaints with the EEOC and PHRC based on being academically beinng mobbed for well over a year at HACC in Lancaster Pa. Thank you for allowing me to express my freedom of speech through the freedom of the press. thank god we still have those rights.

is a member of the 

