Avon Lake Principals Band Together To Fight Facebook Bullying

The story Principal Kelli Cogan tells is heartbreaking.

“I had a student’s parents call me and tell us their child was acting withdrawn and sullen,” Cogan, who heads the school of fifth and sixth-graders, said. “We had the student talk to a counselor and found out the child was afraid to come to school because of something on Facebook.”

She asked the student what the problem was.

“Everybody hates me,” the child told Cogan.

“You know how kids are, saying things like that,” Cogan said. “So I told (the child), ‘Everyone doesn’t hate you.’”

“Well, 82 percent do,” the student replied.

Cogan learned a classmate had created a Facebook poll asking if they liked the student and 82 percent had replied, “no.” That poll included responses from people on Facebook from all over the country who had never even met the student.

“The kid found out,” Cogan said. “How do you combat that?”

Facebook requires users to be a minimum of 13 years old, but that hasn’t stopped plenty of Troy students, most in the age range of 10 to 12, from signing up. 

“Kids can lie and say they’re older,” Cogan said.

Off-campus and online, taunts affect students at school

Cogan said one female student lied about posting online taunts about a male classmate.

“I asked to see her page and she signed me on,” Cogan said. “There wasn’t anything about this student on there, but I couldn’t believe some of the posts. The language…there was X-rated stuff on there. I asked her if she posted about the boy and she said no.”

The next day the boy came back and showed Cogan comments the girl reposted later that day. This time the boy printed them out.

“I called her mother to let her know; she had no idea,” Cogan said.

The principal had to address one situation where a middle school student was sending blast texts that a fifth-grade classmate was having sex with an older student. It wasn’t true, but the damage to the younger girl was incalculable.

In an Internet age, principals, including principal Dr. Joanie Walker and Principal Jane Ramsay are finding that the problems caused by social media and texting away from class are spilling over into the classrooms. Student being threatened, bullied and lied about on cyberspace and are coming to school afraid, withdrawn and unable to concentrate.

There have been numerous reports of cyberbullying and taunting leading to suicide.

Principals take action using snail mail

The school district prohibits students from using Facebook and sending text messages but there is almost nothing they can do to combat off-campus use.

Almost.

Cogan, Ramsay and Walker co-authored a letter to parents about the growing problem and mailed them out last week, just before the school’s spring break.  Cogan said she wanted to the letters to get delivered in the mail for a greater impact.

“We…spend a significant amount of time mediating, counseling and investigating individual and group cases that involve either facebook or texting,” the letter said in part. “The majority of our students have their own facebook page as well as their own phones with texting capabilities. In this process we have had the opportunity to read many of our students’ postings on facebook and their text messages.  These are some of our findings:

• Language beyond inappropriate – it is appalling
• Language of a sexual nature – X-rated
• Slanderous comments regarding fellow students (innuendo, rumors)
• Threatening language (harassment, intimidation)”

The letter (seen here in its entirety) is asking parents to find out if their child has a Facebook account and/or texting capabilities and obtain their Facebook log-in and password and check their wall postings and friends list daily as well as text messages.

“We’re stressing ‘daily,’” Cogan said. “If you are a day late, the ramifications can be life threatening.”

The feedback on the letters has been tremendous. Cogan said she has received calls and emails from parents who had no idea this was going on and was supportive -- and thankful-- of the efforts. With many homes having wireless and many students having laptops, many parents aren't aware their kids are involved in social media.

She’s also received calls from other districts including South Euclid and Cuyahoga Falls asking about the letter and how Avon Lake is handling the problem.

Cogan hopes to incorporate 20-minute breakout session for parents to advise them on Facebook during next year's parent-teacher conferences.