Archambault Calls for Law on Cyberbullying
Monday, August 30, 2010
Democratic Attorney General candidate Stephen Archambault is calling for a new law to address the issue of cyberbullying in schools.
He said the new law should have tougher penalties for cyberbullying – and also put more responsibility on educators to report cases.
Cyberbullying is the use of e-mail, text messages, and social networking sites like Facebook to threaten, harass, and spread rumors about a classmate. Half of all U.S. children had some experience with cyberbullying in 2008, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control study. Because it doesn’t require fact-to-face confrontations, Archambault said cyberbullying tends to be more common than more traditional forms of bullying.
He called on a new state Senate commission that is studying the issue to review the anti-bullying laws that recently passed in Massachusetts and Louisiana. The Massachusetts law, which was passed after two bullying-related suicides, mandates that every school employee – including custodians and cafeteria workers – report incidents of bullying.
He also called for the expansion of programs like TalkWorks – which uses plays and role playing to illustrate the dangers of bullying for elementary school students in Rhode Island. “I attended a TalkWorks session in an elementary school classroom and as a result have seen first-hand the positive impact on our children,” Archambault said.
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