by Annie Ruckman |

Blogging, tweeting or texting, it is all the same when it comes to cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is bullying through email, instant messaging, chat room exchanges, Web site posts, or digital messages or images sent to a cellular phone. Cyber bullying, like traditional bullying, involves an imbalance of power, aggression, and a negative action that is often repeated.
About 45 percent of 100 students surveyed think that cyber bullying is a problem at LHS, and 85 percent of students know someone who has been bullied. Throughout the years technology has become more and more apart of the lives of students and with this increase has also come an increase in cyber bullying through any sort of technology.
“I see cyber bullying on Facebook mostly, people are just talking bad about others. If I see it I tell them [ bully ] to cut the crap and get over themselves,” senior Cara Termini said.
Talking to an adult or friend about cyber bullying is one of the best options to try and get support and help through situations online.
“In terms of what people can do, they can block a certain person or certain phone numbers. One of the big problems with cyber bullying is that people think its funny, or it was intended to be a joke, they don’t necessarily see that its hurtful, so rather than people defending the person being bullied, they laugh about it, or try to minimize it and act like its not a big deal,” counselor Amy Tuso said.
Cyber bullying can take away the safety aspect of home for some people when others use media to attack another person.
“One of the biggest risks with bullying, and with any bullying that we don’t know what is happening out of school, we don’t know why they do the things they do and so to tease somebody about what we think is weird because we don’t understand can a lot of times being joking or teasing about a situation going on and the risk is that we seriously hurt someone,” Tuso said.
The best thing students can do is to talk, by talking you get a different perspective on things.
“I had a friend who was being bullied online and I told them they can’t live their life based off of how other people look at them, if you’re worried about what everyone else is saying about you, you will never be able to see yourself clearly, it’s all a matter of being confident and self assured,” sophomore Emily Moore said.