January 2022 School Safety Blog

In preparing to write this school safety blog, I have found myself falling down a rabbit hole. Initially, I wanted to open 2022 with a positive follow-on to events which closed out the 2021 calendar year for schools. I was searching for some good, solid, after-action advice around digital safety and how to most efficiently build that into school safety planning. But in doing so, several other related yet tangential topics and questions arose.

I wondered, “How big is the internet these days?” (Pretty big! We think of Google as having things pretty much cataloged and available, but one source tells us that Google has only indexed roughly .004% of what’s out there!)

I thought of the interconnectedness of almost everything, the IoT, of Alexa and Siri. I remember conversations I have had with students when they asked me, “Mr. D, why do you talk about cyberbullying like it was different from regular bullying? It’s all the same to us – just as real.”

I jumped into the Deep Web and the Dark Web. (I better understand why Google probably only has just .004% of all the content.)

And of course, I read all that I could find following that December 17, TikTok hoax. What was most interesting in all that was the fact that there was no, real, actual, posted threat, per se. However, there were numerous postings suggesting that there was a threat.

All of which brought me back to my search for good, solid advice. It led me back to the basics. So, paraphrasing steps complied by stopbullying.gov, and expanding them to any online experience,

• Everyone: See something; say something. Students, if something makes you uncomfortable, tell a teacher, parent, administrator, counselor, SRO…. Find a trusted adult. Tell somebody.
• Adults, pay attention to a young person’s mood or behavior while or after they have been online.
• Talk to them. Ask questions. Have a conversation.
• Proactively teach digital safety and remind students that there is no real privacy online. (Nor can things ever really be totally deleted. Digital footprints never wash away.)
• Report cyberbullying, abuse, threats, etc. to the social media platform. If there are serious threats, crimes, or other illegal behaviors, contact the police.
• Be supportive. Intervene. Seek professional help, when needed.

I often close my cyberbullying trainings by reminding the audience that most young people are safe online most of the time. And most are doing amazing things.

But sometimes, some young people need help and support. 

Plan for that.

For more hands-on resources for educators, students, and families, visit the Cyberbullying Research Center.