Social media is a huge part of being a high schooler today, but social media has its drawbacks. People are bullied every day, and a lot of it comes from interactions on social media So, what can a school do to prevent these things from happening on social media?

How can a school take take action if there’s something on social media affecting someone’s day at school?

Principal Mills– If it’s on social media, it’s no different than if it was person to person that was affecting somebody’s day so we can identify who is it that’s involved and then we’re going to make sure that that student who doesn’t feel safe or comfortable. As an avenue that they’re able to get back to the morning because ultimately within a school a part of that safe welcome an inclusive environment. It’s an absolute guarantee that all students should have access to learning and should not feel like they can’t access that learning for any reason so if at any point that’s disrupted or that’s through social media or whether that’s through a person that’s in their class that’s them choosing to treat somebody in a poor way we do take some steps to rectify that and really restore the relationship is happening.

Counselor Gwin–  The school finds out a lot of times about cyber bullying situations after a while, maybe the family might know about it beforehand, or friends might know about it, but we get the information a little late. I think it varies how we approach it; if we’ve received information as counselors around cyberbullying, after the police have already been involved. Sometimes we get it before the police have been involved, and sometimes parents are the ones that bring it to us, so that changes our approach depending on what point that we get that information. It really does depend on what we’re seeing and when we were involved.

If two students are private messaging each other and it’s affecting someone at school can you take someone’s phone and read the messages?
Principal Mills-What we can do is if it’s brought to our attention by somebody saying, “Hey, look, here’s what I have,” that gives us the right to talk about it because it’s been brought to our attention. If I have two students saying, ”Hey, I’m not going to show you that,” that’s their right. We can ask them, what we will do is we will say, “Here’s what we’re hearing, here’s what’s going on. Are you willing to show us what this conversation’s about so we can make sure that we’re not thinking of doing something that’s inappropriate?”

Do you think social media is a good or bad thing at schools?

Principal Mills– This generation has grown up with social media. Social media is a part of what many students are experiencing whether it’s in school or outside of school. It’s not about saying we shouldn’t.