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Police, school boards team up to battle cyber-bullying DAVID LEA Special to The IFP Halton Regional Police are joining forces with local school boards to stamp out the emergence of cyber-bullying. At a meeting held in late November, senior managers from Halton Police met with the directors of the Halton Catholic District School Board and the Halton District School Board to spread awareness of the potential problem before it becomes a more serious issue. At the meeting the directors were shown disturbing videos-- posted on the popular video sharing website YouTube-- of young people being viciously bullied. "There was an incident in Hamilton that was on YouTube and it showed some school girls who targeted another young girl from school and literally attacked her and were beating her quite severely," said Sgt. Peter Payne, Halton Police Public Affairs Officer. Bullying incidents such as this are taped with devices like videophones and then downloaded and shared online. "It is an emerging trend and we would be remiss if we didn't stay on top of this before it becomes a significant problem," said Payne. Also known as a fight club, this new type of cyber-bullying was a hot topic of discussion during the meeting. "It's an informal gathering of youth that participate in the abusing of more vulnerable youth for sport and enjoyment," said Payne. "It's an extreme form of bullying." While some of the fights shown online appear to be consensual, this did nothing to diminish the concern of the school board directors. "In one of the videos we were watching, ticipants in these fight clubs as being willing there's a whole bunch of people surround- participants and therefore they really didn't ing these two youths who are hitting each feel that anything wrong was happening," other and kicking each other," said Lou he said. Piovesan, Director of the Halton Catholic Telling the school boards what to look District School Board. for is the primary method Payne is using in Although unable to identify any Halton hopes of stopping the trend before it Catholic District School students in the becomes entrenched in Halton. videos it was brought to Piovesan's atten"When you see kids gathering for what tion that at least one consensual fight video might have been, in days gone by, a consenwas shot in Halton Region. sual fight situation, those sorts of things H a l t o n now lead to the District School videotaping and Board Director the further degra`It's an informal gatherWayne Joudrie dation of those was also shocked ing of youth that particiinvolved through by the videos he the posting on an pate in the abusing of was shown by Internet site," he more vulnerable youth police. said. for sport and enjoy"I was very "That's why it concerned on a is that teaching ment, It's an extreme number of fronts. staff need to be form of bullying.' First of all for the vigilant and safety of our stuwhen they see --Halton Police Sgt. Peter Payne dents and secincidents starting ondly about the to develop to use of technology intervene as as a vehicle for communicating the potential quickly as possible." for a fight club to occur," he said. Police are also approaching students Whether consensual or not Payne says about cyber-bullying and fight clubs. such acts can easily become a police matter. "We have our school liaison officers "No one can consent to bodily harm. So speaking to students on the issues and makif two people consent to a fight and one of ing sure that they are aware that we are them subsequently becomes injured in aware. That way they're comfortable more than a minor way... then the individ- approaching us when they hear of incidents ual that caused that injury would be liable that may develop," said Payne. for a charge of assault." Piovesan said his school board is doing Joudrie said another problem that was its part to raise awareness of and prevent indicated to him by police is the victimless cyber-bullying. attitude youth take towards fight clubs. "We will be doing presentations to par"The kids in many cases saw this as not ents about this," he said. an illegal or dangerous event. They saw parPiovesan says his school board is also fighting cyber-bullying by stripping potential bullies of their tools. "We don't allow cell phones to be used in the schools. We don't ban students from carrying them to school but they have to deactivate them," he said. Besides filming bullying incidents, Piovesan says, cyber-bullies also use cell phones to send harassing text messages making the suspension of their use in school paramount. Video surveillance is another technique Piovesan's school board is using to keep students safe. "We started it as a pilot project in six schools in the fall and it seems to be a positive influence." The Halton District School Board has also made it a policy to ban cell phone use in its schools but, as Joudrie explains, ever changing technology presents new avenues for cyber-bullying. "You could explicitly ban something like cell phones only to have students that are using a PDA, an MP3 or an iPod. With the convergence of technology an item does three or four things," he said. Like the Catholic school board, Joudrie is working with police to raise awareness of the problem recently inviting members of the police services to a principal's meeting in order to familiarize the principals with the concept of cyber-bullying and fight clubs. This also gave the principals the opportunity to provide police with any information they may have had. "We have two options," said Joudrie. "We can ignore it and watch it grow or we can deal with it in a very public and expressed way. The approach we've chosen is to deal with it straight up."