Know the Lingo

The following are definitions for words that are quickly becoming part of our mainstream lingo. 
 

• Gossip: Posting or sending cruel gossip to damage a person’s reputation and relationships with friends, family, and acquaintances.

• Exclusion: Deliberately excluding someone from an online group.

• Impersonation: Breaking into someone’s e-mail or other online account and sending messages that will cause embarrassment or damage to the person’s reputation and affect his or her relationship with others.

• Harassment: Repeatedly posting or sending offensive, rude, and insulting messages.

• Cyber-stalking: Posting or sending unwanted or intimidating messages, which may include threats.

• Flaming: Online fights where scornful and offensive messages are posted on websites, forums, or blogs.

• Outing and Trickery: Tricking someone into revealing secrets or embarrassing information which is then shared online.

• Cyber-threats: Remarks on the Internet threatening or implying violent behavior, displaying suicidal tendencies.

• Blogs: A combination of the words “web” and “log.” Blog refers to a webpage that is a publicly accessible, personal journal for an individual. Though often written from a personal point of views, blogs are highly public.

• Cyber-citizen: Anyone who is logged onto the internet.

• Chat room: A virtual for internet users with shared interest to converse. Chat rooms exist on every possible subject and users enter the “room” with an assumed screen name.

• IM: This is short for instant messaging, a type of communication service that enables you to communicate in real time over the internet. It is analogous to the telephone, except it uses text based, not voice based communications. It typically is from one computer to another.

Click to Inflict

Logging on, Claudia, a 14 year old honor student adds this entry to her blog, “I hate you. You are such a loser!” This diatribe degenerates into the mindless cruel slandering of a fellow peer. Every day, for 4 months, Claudia has faithfully blogged about her chosen target. Claudia’s blog snowballed as 33 other bloggers joined her in her hateful escapades.

In some ways, cyber-bullying is to bullying, what road rage is to violence. Both bullying and violence have had their place in our society for as long as we have had a society. Just as road r age is a form of violence that incorporates the use of automobiles and trucks, cyber-bullying is a form of bullying that uses the internet and other communication devices, to achieve its sordid objective. What we know and understand about physically bullying still counts with cyber-bullying. It is more the things we don’t know that make it harder to deal with. When bullying takes on physical aggression, or even relational aggression, the target usually has an idea who the bully is. With cyber-bullying, the level of anonymity is such that we begin to see true passive aggressive behavior. In some cases, the victim knows they are being bullied, but they don’t know who the bully is.  

This generation is the first to grow up “plugged-in.” The statistics show, that 71% of online teens have been contacted via social networks by complete strangers. The internet has widened the generation gap between children and parents fueling a digital divide, where children and teens are much more adept and experienced than parents. It is easier to get away with things when done online—at least with parents. Cliques, clubs, and other groups have moved from the school hallways and lunch rooms to chat rooms, blogs and social networks. Approximately 93% of all Americans between the ages 12 and 17 are estimated to be online daily.

Bully Prevention

I know that finding the right words can sometimes be difficult. My Bully Prevention Manual & Disk are designed to help you in any situation. 

Bully Prevention Manual & CD

What school doesn’t need an effective framework for dealing with the bully, the bullied and the bystander?

Bully Prevention  CD Toolbox

Need a way to report bullying? What about setting up a bullying prevention process? Save yourself hours of development and duplication by using the contents of this CD.

 Visit my website for more details: www.SchoolBullyingExpert.com

Meet Donna Clark Love!

Donna Clark Love is an internationally recognized expert and trainer in the areas of Bully Prevention. Some of her credits include developing and facilitating substance abuse and violence prevention programs for fifty-three schools in a large metropolitan school district in Houston, Texas.

Donna is frequently asked to conduct administrative/teacher in-service trainings, parent community presentations, and student leadership workshops. She is a sought out speaker for conferences and conventions and has presented numerous keynote sessions and workshops.

Donna has been featured on the NBC Today Show and the NBC Evening News to highlight successful prevention/intervention programs and also has been interviewed by Forbes Magazine. People Magazine interviewed Donna for a “Cyber Bullying” article and featured her in the March 2005 issue as an expert in this field.

Donna captivates her audiences by integrating brain-based strategies in her training programs to create spirited, productive and participatory sessions.  Her Accelerated Learning Training is being utilized by school districts who desire to improve academic performance and raise student test scores.