Cyberbullying is a growing epidemic among teenagers in America. Teens are victimized through insults on the internet especially on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Cyberbullying affects the victim emotionally and damages their reputation because it is on a platform where almost anyone is able to accesses the information. I can understand why some people may oppose school discipline against cyberbullying; it occurs off campus thus making it harder to enforce punishment. Some people may argue that schools have no place to take action against cyberbullying because it is out of the school’s discretion; however, schools should discipline students for cyberbullying because the emotional damage can affect a student’s learning abilities and may lead to illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and even suicide.
Boal Carmine is a former Iowa State representative and a current author. Carmine writes in the a newspaper in Iowa, ”cyber bullying policies in school are unnecessary because schools already have anti-harassment laws. Adding more of these laws would be redundant”. I disagree with Carmine’s point because anti-harassment policies are not the same as cyberbullying ones. Cyberbullying is a sensitive topic and needs to be approached with more caution. Creating cyberbullying policies would make the cyber attacker rethink his actions because there may be consequences that follow. Carmine also says that cyberbullying can be defeated by education and raising awareness. I disagree because without laws to regulate the cyberbullies, they will keep attacking. Education would not affect a cyberbully because they are aware of the harm they are inflicting. However, cyberbullying will be defeated through getting more people aware of cyberbullying and implementing some type of policy in schools.
The effects of cyberbullying are significant and cyberbullies need to be aware of what damage they have caused after participating in cyberbullying. Depression and...