Bullies are simply cowards, and cyberbullies are no different, according to Maple Valley Police Chief Michelle Bennett.
Bennett spoke at Shadow Lake Elementary on March 2 during a presentation about cyberbullying in an effort to inform and educate students about how they can prevent cyberbullying at school.
Bennett explained that cyberbullying is even worse than traditional bullying.
“If you aren’t willing to say something to someone’s face, why are you doing it online?” she asked.
During the presentation, a video was shown depicting a girl who gets up in front of an audience and verbally insults another girl. The message was that what you say online has the same affect as saying it in person.
“But online it’s worse,” Bennett said. “Because when it’s in person it’s just you and them. Online it’s everyone.”
Bennett also took time to give a very specific definition of bullying to help differentiate it between harmless talk. Bullying, she explained, is when someone acts in a way that is intended to make another person feel bad. Joking in a playful manner is not bullying, she said, because the intent is not to hurt them emotionally or physically.
Another reason bullies are cowards, according to Bennett, is because they usually put other people down due to their own low self-esteem.
“They shouldn’t have to put other people down to feel good about themselves,” she said.
She then went on to describe how a typical bully operates, through the use of threats, harmful teasing, insulting jokes, or gossip. She also discussed how technology has given bullies a new medium with which to operate from in an anonymous manner.
For example, a cyberbully can post untrue or hurtful things about someone else on YouTube, or send other messages via email. They can also send text messages or call either their friends or the victim.
Bullying in any form not only causes physical harm, but emotionally damage as well, Bennett said, citing a study which determined 160,000 students avoid school every day due to bullying. She used her own son as an example, who was punched every recess and eventually said he did not want to school anymore.
Bennett stressed how bullying, whether in person or online, is not merely wrong, but can be considered a crime if the courts are able to prove a child knew what he was doing was wrong.
“It’s no different if you talk on the phone, online, or to their face in the eyes of the law,” she said. “Sometimes these things are more than mean. Sometimes these things are a crime.”
To help prevent cyberbullying, Bennet advised that students who receive rude emails, texts, or messages are to remain calm and not engage the bully. They are to instead report it either to their parents or to a teacher if it happens at school. If the bullying is done in person, they are to tell them directly that their behavior is to stop.
During the presentation, Bennett also cited statistics that showed bullies and their victims make up a very small proportion of a student population. Seven out of 100 students are bullies, while eight out of a 100 are victims. The other 85 percent, Bennett argued, can either prevent or enable bullying by how they respond to it when they see it happen.
“You guys are the ones that can make the difference in that,” Bennett said.
