In the recent past, the term “sexting” has come into our lexicon. Sexting can be defined as creating, sending and/or receiving sexually explicit images or texts.  It has been described as a 21st century variation of you-show-me-yours-I’ll-show-you-mine game. However, with the added factor of 21st century technology, it is a whole new game!

There is a lot of conversation among law enforcement, the legal community, educators, prevention-intervention people, counselors and others as to whether sexting falls into the category of criminal activity as child pornography. There is no single, simple answer. Each situation is different.

 By way of example, the recent tragic suicide of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi raises sexting to a new level: live sexting.  In the reporting of this tragedy, commentators repeatedly posed the same question. Although worded differently by different reporters, the question was something like this: “Don’t these tech-savvy kids understand what they are doing when they….?” Fill in the blank with whatever is most appropriate for the situation. The answer is all too obviously, “No, they do not.” Both the question and the answer underscore the need to differentiate between understanding how technologies work and understanding the social, personal implication of their use. Sexting is a prime example of this. The prevailing wisdom suggests that cases of sexting are very often the result of immaturity, naivety, and lack of fore-thought. Young people – people of any  age – can be both tech savvy and stupid!

 As noted above, sexting is generally creating, sending and/or receiving sexually explicit images or texts. The phenomenon is both well publicized and complex, and all incidents of sexting are not the same.   Let’s paraphrase the commentators’ question, delete the “tech savvy” part and ask, “Why would kids do this?” The question contains the answer: they are still kids. They are kids with 24/7 digital access. As kids, they tend to not think situations through. What may seem to be funny on one level may be very serious on another. In addition, hormones are very likely kicking in. Flirting in the hall becomes virtual flirting. This sometimes triggers “you-show-me-yours…” Throw in the fact that “everybody else is doing it,” mix with bragging rights and the recipe for sexting is almost complete.

This is a fairly benign look at something which we know can be extremely damaging. Beyond the hormones and virtual flirting, there are other, more malicious answers to the question of why kids would do this. Among them are pressure, pressure from boyfriends – and even girlfriends. “If you really loved me, you’d send me a picture…” And after a break-up, there is revenge. Pictures shared in trust and love become the weapons of a former boy or girlfriend. Interestingly, this can be played either way. Pictures and messages can be shared either to embarrass a former partner or to make that partner jealous. (“She’s not all that goody-goody” versus “Look what he/she’s missing now.”) Sexting thus becomes mean-spirited, true bullying and harassment. The negative potential does not end there, however. Sexting can be used for threats and coercion. “If you don’t send me your picture, I will…” Or “If you don’t …., I will send you that picture I have of you.” Ultimately, sexting can devolve into sexual solicitation, and the creation and marketing of child pornography.

 There are other considerations when faced with a sexting situation. First, not all participants necessarily know that they are involved. Some pictures, taken very innocently or through trickery, can be shared out of context, suggestively tagged or otherwise modified for use in sexting contexts. Those in the frame may have no idea that they are in the picture or that the picture is being shared.  In addition, we have to remember that cell phones are ubiquitous, they have cameras and pictures can be shared in an instant. Finally, age matters.  It is very important to determine the ages of those involved in sexting situations. It may become a factor in determining if criminal charges are in order. Always check with your legal office.

 After the “why” question, the next question which is frequently asked is, “So, how much do schools need to become involved in sexting?” The answer is both simple and complex. If sexting happens away from school, after school and if there is no connection, no nexus to the school, then the school is not required to intervene. However, if sexting happens and if there is a connection, a nexus, then the school is required to intervene. The question then becomes, “How might there be a nexus?” In answering that question, consider whether the sexting involved school hardware or software. Did it occur on campus? During school? Did a student or parent come to a staff member for help? Is your student in obvious distress? Has the situation caused a disruption to the educational environment for your students or staff? Is anyone on staff involved? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then the school is involved.

Here are some suggestions for dealing with sexting situations which may happen in school.

1. Be prepared to support the target of the sexting.
2. Be proactive. Have a plan and take it to your legal office before the need arises. Know your school and district policies and procedures around bullying, harassment, cyberbullying, Internet use, etc. 
3. Educate your entire staff on all appropriate policies and procedures. Be sure staff is prepared to intervene appropriately, should a situation arise. Do the same for parents. In addition, although it seems almost unnecessary to say, make it very clear to all the adults that they should never share, copy, forward, download, email or otherwise distribute sexted images or messages which they might receive.
4. Do not overreact. The biggest deterrent for young people in reporting sexting – and other uncomfortable situations – is the fear that the adults will overreact. The biggest demonstration of that overreaction: taking away technology access.
5. Determine all the participants. Have a Student Intervention Team or a Multidisciplinary Team in place. These teams could include administrators, counselors, nurses, Prevention-Intervention staff, school security, possibly legal and law enforcement personnel, if so needed.
6. Investigate the situation. Determine who all are involved. Document how the situation and the images came to your attention. Determine how widely images have been distributed.
7. Apply appropriate discipline. Appropriate discipline should be included in your overall plan.

 So, educate your students. Educate them not only in the “how to’s” of using technology. Educate them in social, educational, ethical and civil considerations of using technology so that we will not continue to hear tragic stories like that of Tyler Clementi.

Mike Donlin has been an educator for decades. He has taught English Language Arts and English as a Second Language at all levels and in different locations around the country and the world. Donlin started with Seattle Public Schools in 1980 as a classroom teacher. Since that time, he has taught, trained and supervised a variety of programs from TBE/ESL to technology and bullying and harassment prevention and intervention. In Seattle’s Prevention-Intervention program, Mike implemented bullying prevention programs with an emphasis on Internet safety and cyberbullying and oversaw the development of a Middle School Cyberbullying Curriculum. In 2008, he received a Qwest/NCMEC Spirit of Online Safety Leadership Award, and is currently a member of the National Cyber Security Alliance K-12 Work Group and an alumnus of the FBI Citizens’ Academy. Mike is married and has three digital native children.

Photo credits:
I Swear, He Is Texting Everywhere He Goes (2): dmjarvey / Dean Jarvey on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Courtney texting: vosburg_09 on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Cell phone teens: K. Kendall on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Texting: kamshots on Flickr.com Creative Commons

Chelsie’s change in behavior is consistent with that of a cyberbully victim, Hindjua and Patchin wrote in Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying.

Students who have problems with a cyberbully often change their behavior, avoid technology, and avoid school, the authors wrote.

“Our own research identified a link between cyberbullying victimization and adolescent problem behaviors, such as recent school difficulties, assultive conduct, substance use, and traditional bullying,” Hinduja and Patchin wrote.

Chelsie’s behavior is unusual for her, but she won’t confide in any adults, either. At parent-teacher conferences, Chelsie’s mom was concerned about her daughter’s behavior, but said that Chelsie won’t confide in her. The parent is worried about Chelsie, uneasy about her constant illnesses and absences, and upset about her grades. The mom wants to help but she thinks that Chelsie’s problem is just an adolescent phase.

It’s not just a phase. Chelsie, like 60 percent of cyberbullying victims, has chosen not to confide about her cyberbullying problem to a teacher, parent, or other adult. Why do students like Chelsie choose to suffer in silence? They have their reasons.

• Embarrassment. Chelsie is mortified that another student used a cell phone to snap a locker room photo of Chelsie. Worse, that photo has made the rounds. Chelsie’s hoping that by laying low, not socializing with anyone, staying off electronic devices, and avoiding school that the whole embarrassing incident will blow over.
• Attacks will escalate. Chelsie’s not a wimpy tattletale who runs to an adult when there’s trouble. She thinks that if she tells an adult about the cyberbullying, the attacks will only get worse.
• Adults don’t understand. Hinduja and Patchin’s cyberbullying study found that students don’t tell adults because they believe that the adults don’t know enough about the technology to help, the adults won’t do anything, or the adults will over-react. Chelsie believes her teacher wouldn’t help her, even if the teacher knew about the bullying. After all, Chelsie’s problem is a cell phone photo text message and students don’t use their phones in school. It’s really not the teacher’s problem. She doesn’t want to tell her mom because Mom will call the cyberbully’s parents and escalate the problem.
• Adults will blame the victim. Instead of working out a solution with the victim, an adult might chide the student for allowing someone access to an online account, sharing a password, or giving out a phone number. Chelsie thinks that if she told her dad about the cyberbullying, he’d give her a lecture about how she’s been irresponsible with her cell phone and private information. She’ll feel like she’s to blame for the malicious text.
• Adults will restrict digital access. Students prize their access to their electronic devices and they’re afraid that an adult’s solution to the cyberbullying problem is to remove the medium – the cell phone or computer. That kind of response punishes the victim and sends her the message that she is indeed at fault. Chelsie’s convinced that telling her parents will mean that they’ll take her cell phone away. She hates the bullying text messages, but she clings to the supportive ones her friends send her.

Better responses are to encourage students to confide in an adult about cyberbullying, explain how they can block cyberbullies cell phone and e-mail messages, and create strong passwords. Make sure that students don’t respond to bullying messages, but instead take the time to print out a hate-filled screen or save a harmful text message as a record of the bullying.

Cyberbullying isn’t a victimless crime. Teens don’t have the maturity to shrug off insults or respond appropriately to a bully. Studies have shown that students who suffer from bullying are five times more likely to be depressed than their peers. One out of ten of these bullying victims drop out of school.

When a cyberbullying victim confides in a teacher, the teacher needs to listen more than talk. Praise the student for talking about the problem. Students need to know that adults will do something about the problem and that the outlook for the bullying to stop is good.

“One of the reasons why cyberbullying is not taken seriously is that there remains a number of adults who continue to perceive traditional bullying as simply ‘a rite of passage among adolescents,’ as ‘boy being boys,’ or even as an inevitable and instructive element of growing up,” Hinduja and Patchin wrote. “However, we believe that if emotional, psychological, and potentially even physical harm stemming from online aggression can be reduced or prevented, it is definitely worth the effort.”

References:

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2008). Cyberbullying: an exploratory analysis of factors related to offending and victimization. Deviant Behavior. 29, 129-156.

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2009). Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

For the first week of classes, I had always asked my students to sit in alphabetical order so I could learn their names. That’s how I began the class.

A big guy in a muscle shirt with a tattoo and a gold-outlined tooth interrupted me. “Miss,” Sean said. “Miss, don’t put us in alphabetical order.”

I remember using some think time. “What should I do, Sean?”

“Let me assign seats.”

Sean made me a brilliant seating chart. I was too young and too chicken to ask him, but I’m sure Sean seated one gang on the left, the other on the right, and some neutral girls down the center as a buffer zone. Thank you, Sean, for looking out for me.

Life in summer English 11 was pretty peaceful until I allowed the class to divide themselves into teams for a review game. My students were completely engaged in the game. They enjoyed any opportunity to compete and began to trash talk. You can imagine how the trash talk escalated from good-natured ribbing to real insults. The original lesson plan had called for a friendly game with vocabulary words and a go-to-the-bathroom-free pass at stake, but it escalated to an event that was about honor, justice, pride, and revenge. They began to shout, stand up, and scatter desks.

I managed to end the game and settle the class, but I’m sure by now you can spot my earlier error. In my defense: I was new.

The error: don’t allow trash talk, good-natured ribbing, casual insults, or slams.

The problem with trash talk and other negative talk is that it can escalate to bigger things like harassment, bullying, or a fight.

Lay the groundwork. Know your school district’s harassment policies and explain them to the students at the beginning of the school year. If you haven’t done that already, today’s a good day to start. Let students know that you care about them as individuals, you want them to feel safe, and you want everyone in your classroom to respect one another’s rights.

Prevent trash talk.

• Set a tone of respect in the classroom. Do not rib students or use sarcasm.
• Praise students, especially when they’re nice to one another.
• Label the entire group as one of your favorite classes ever and hope that they become it.
• Instead of saying, “Stop that,” say, “Hey, Shamika. That’s not cool. How can you say that with respect?”
• Smile more than frown.
• Watch students for warning signs of disrespect – like trash talking.

No bystanders.
When faced with a conflict, some people, some teachers, look the other way. Looking the other way is the same thing as agreeing with the bullying behavior.

• Never let a negative comment slide. You must address it every time or students will think you agree with the comment.
• Reward students who stand up for one another with praise. Call their parents and let them know that their student has integrity and backbone.
• Don’t call attention to the trash talker’s target. Talk to the person privately, but don’t double her shame with a public poor baby.

Contact others and document.

• Always write down any bullying event in a notebook with the date, time, students’ names, and words or deeds, as best you can recall.
• Touch base with the victim privately the next day to check she’s O.K. Document.
• Let the guidance counselor know that the victim might need support. Document.
• Talk to parents and let them know what happened, what you’ve done, whom you’ve informed, and what the school policy is. Document.
• If the trash talking or negative speech continues, use your documentation to write a referral to the school administration. Include all parent phone calls, guidance counselor contacts, and any actions you’ve taken.

My summer English 11 class was challenging, but I learned a lot. I learned how to manage a classroom of 40 diverse kids in rival gangs and leave the room feeling like we all had a fun and productive morning. I learned to listen to my students because often they’re right. And I learned not to let insults slide. What starts out as funny can end up serious.

In the classroom, so much of the bullying happens covertly and is tough to see, so many of us teachers don’t realize just how widespread the problem is.

• According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2007), about one-third of middle and high school students reported that they’d been bullied in the last six months.
• The American Medical Association estimates that two-thirds of students think that schools don’t respond well to bullying. That same study found that 25% of teachers think that bullying is normal behavior and just 4% intervene on behalf of students.
• Bullying victims are sick more often. They suffer from the common cold, from stomach cramps, headaches, sore throats, and sleep problems (Journal of the American Medical Association)
• Bullying victims miss school. According to the National Education Association, 160,000 students stay home every day because they’re too afraid to come to class.
• Students who bully in elementary school keep the bullying pattern throughout their school years. (Scientific American Special Edition)
• Bullies don’t suffer from low self-esteem. They’re usually dominant kids and pretty popular, too. They rise to the top of the social order by picking on others. (Scientific American Special Edition)

Ever since beginning my research on social aggression, teachers often have asked me what they should do to help students cope with the ill effects of social aggression. I often have been at a loss for words when faced with this question, given that little research has been conducted in order to verify effective strategies that teachers can use inside or outside of their classrooms. As a result, my most recent research has involved designing and testing a method that includes three activities intended to help girls both talk about and cope with their emotions surrounding social aggression (Willer, 2009). The three activities are based in the fields of narrative psychology and therapy and involve helping girls cope through storytelling, art, and metaphor.¹

The first step in helping girls cope is to encourage them to tell their stories of social aggression. Pennebaker’s (1997) research suggests that communicating about stressful events is an effective sense-making process that helps reduce emotional and intrusive thoughts, and therefore, negative emotional outcomes. In other words, when girls experience social aggression, they are apt to ruminate about what has occurred, why it happened, and the impact it will have on their relationships. Such continuous and intrusive thinking can contribute to negative health outcomes. Giving language to their thoughts and feelings through storytelling, however, is an effective means of engaging in catharsis, gaining insight into what happened, and feeling a sense of control over what has occurred. Thus, the first activity in the coping method involves teachers allowing students to tell their stories of social aggression.

Teachers should keep in mind that telling these stories may be difficult for their students. Young people may not be developmentally and cognitively advanced enough to productively process stressful experiences such as social aggression and the complex emotions that may result. Therefore, after allowing girls to tell their stories of social aggression, teachers can engage students in two metaphor drawing activities designed to help them productively process their experiences with social aggression. Using metaphor and art can aid in storytelling, especially for children, because they are “ways to visually communicate thoughts and feelings that are too painful to put into words” (Malchiodi, 2003, p. ix).

The first metaphor drawing activity involves encouraging students to externalize social aggression. Therapists use externalization as a sense-making method that focuses on seeing the problem as the problem rather than the person as the problem (White & Epston, 1990). Therefore, the goal of this activity is to have girls draw a metaphor that represents their feelings about their experiences with social aggression. For example, a participant in my study drew a duckling who lost her family to represent how her experience with gossip made her feel all alone. Another girl drew a person who was about to be hit by a car to represent the fear she felt when her peers were excluding her. After students draw metaphors such as these, teachers can encourage them to use their drawings to orally explain and further process their emotions.

The second metaphor drawing activity provides another means for helping girls communicate about and cope with their experiences with social aggression. The purpose of this activity is to help students productively reframe their experience with social aggression by drawing a redemption metaphor (McAdams, Diamond, de St. Aubin, and Mansfield, 1997). This technique is based on research that has found that people who are able to see the redeeming qualities or the bright side of a bad situation tend to be healthier than those individuals who tend to focus on the negative aspects. Therefore, teachers can have students draw a metaphor that represents something positive that came out of the negative experience with social aggression. For example, one participant in my study drew two peas in a pod to represent how she became closer with the girl who was socially aggressive as a result of having to work through their problems. Another girl drew an eagle to represent the freedom she felt when she broke off her friendship with the girl who spread lies about her. Again, teachers can have students use their drawing as a tool to orally communicate and process their feelings.

Social aggression can be debilitating, both socially and emotionally for girls. Through simple communication processes, including storytelling and drawing, however, teachers may be able to offer girls healing and hope.

Erin Willer is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Communication Studies at the University of Denver who has experience as a high school teacher. Her research has been published in the journal Communication Studies and is due to be published next year in Personal Relationships and the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Erin also has received Top Four Paper Awards from the Interpersonal Communication Division of the Western States Communication Association.

End note:
¹Although these activities can be effective ways of helping girls communicate about and cope with social aggression, it is important that teachers take precautions before deciding to implement them. Talking about social aggression the classroom can be risky for students. Any given classroom is comprised of both victims and perpetrators, and therefore, teachers need to be careful not to set students up for revictimization.

References

Crick, N. R., & Bigbee, M. A. (1998). Relational and overt forms of peer victimization: A multiinformant approach. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 337-347.

Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1996). Children’s treatment by peers: Victims of relational and overt aggression. Developmental and Psychopathology, 8, 367-380.

Malchiodi, C. A. (2003). Handbook of art therapy. New York: The Guilford Press.

McAdams, D. P., Diamond, A., de St. Aubin, E., & Mansfield, E. (1997). Stories of commitment: The psychological construction of generative lives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 678-694.

Paquette, J. A., & Underwood, M. K. (1999). Gender differences in young adolescents’ experiences of peer victimization: Social and physical aggression. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 45, 242-266.

Pennebaker, J. W. (1997). Opening up: The healing power of expressing emotions (rev. ed.). New York: Guilford.

White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. Adelaide, South Australia: Dulwich Centre.

Willer, E. K. (2009). Experimentally testing a narrative sense-making metaphor intervention: Facilitating communicative coping about social aggression with adolescent girls. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln.

Our students are digital natives, a term that means that teens look at the Internet, cell phones, instant messaging, and text messaging as a part of their normal social lives. Adults are digital immigrants who use technology as a tool to supplement our lives. For students, asking them to turn off the communications technology is like asking them to eat steak without a knife and fork. Sure, the kids could eat the steak, but it’s messy and awkward without the right tools. Our students are so used to their digital tools that face-to-face communication and online communication blend seamlessly.

That seamless blend of the live and the virtual makes cyberbullying, bullying that takes place through a digital medium, a more complex problem to solve than just turning off the cell phone or logging off the computer. Thirty percent of our students have experienced cyberbullying, the effects of which extend beyond the online universe and into their offline world – including the classroom.

Seattle Public Schools’ Cyberbullying Response. In 2007 the Washington State legislature passed a cyberbullying and anti-harassment law that required school districts to have strong policies that prohibit the bullying and intimidation of any student.

In response to Washington State law and Seattle School Board Policy, the Seattle Public Schools (SPS) developed a bullying prevention program. With funding from the Qwest Foundation, SPS’s Senior Project Consultant Mike Donlin headed up the district’s project, which includes teacher-friendly online cyberbullying prevention units for middle school teachers. The teaching guides, student activities, teacher resources, and parent information can be found here: http://www.seattleschools.org/area/prevention/cbms.html

The nine free, downloadable units are designed to keep kids safe, Donlin said. “Cyberbullying occurs under the table. It’s digital natives bullying one another in the land of the natives – even high-tech adults don’t go there.”

Cyberbullying in the Middle School. Cyberbullying researchers Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin (Bullying beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying, 2009) found that between sixth and seventh grades, incidences of cyberbullying make a significant increase.

That’s one of the reasons the SPS cyberbullying curriculum focuses on middle school. “It seems it’s an age for young people where they begin to experiment with things,” Donlin said. The curriculum can be scaled up or down, he said, but the team who wrote the curriculum felt that focusing on the age where cyberbullying becomes a problem would be the best idea.

The Cyberbullying Curriculum. The Seattle cyberbullying curriculum includes nine teachers manuals, which cover units like Respect and Responsibility, Cyberbullying: Impacts and Consequences, What to do if You Are Being Cyberbullied, What to Do If You’re a Cyberbully, and Standing Up for Others.

Donlin’s team made sure that each unit connected with Washington State Education Standards and could be used in existing technology, health, and English/language arts units or as stand-alone units. The team incorporated student writing activities and home-school-classroom communications into the units as well as teacher evaluation/feedback forms to help the team continually improve and update the unit as technology use changes.

The teacher-designed units are created so teachers who aren’t tech-savvy can be as successful as digital native teachers. It’s important that all teachers, no matter their technology comfort level, connect with students about their technology use, Donlin said.

“This is the twenty-first century,” he said. “We’re losing kids because we’re not connecting with them and we have to make sure they’re safe.”

Schools Need to Support Cyberbullying Victims. “Kids carry around with them and have access to more technology than even a decade ago,” Donlin said. It’s where they live, what they do, how they’re connected. Their biggest fear is: if I tell an adult about a cyberbullying problem, I’m going to lose my stuff, my access”

Hinduja and Patchin write that 60 percent of cyberbullying victims don’t tell and adult about their experiences. They found that victims are afraid adults will take away their computer or cell phone access or that a caring adult won’t know how to help. At school, teachers and administrators are reluctant to intervene with cyberbullying incidents that happen away from school.

“What I hear from school administrators is that we can’t do anything about cyberbullying because it’s out of school,” Donlin said. “But you don’t know that for sure. It can start in school, come into school, and go back out.”

Donlin said that 90 – 95 percent of secondary school students carry a cell phone. “It’s ubiquitous, it’s 24/7,” he said. “Adults don’t see the technology abuse happening, but it’s part of our job to keep the kids safe.”
How to Support a Cyberbullying Victim. The SPS cyberbullying curriculum includes materials that offer advice for students when they witness a cyberbullying incident. Bystanders have a powerful role to play in cyberbullying – bystanders can support the bully’s actions just by saying nothing. However, it’s hard for students to stand up against a bully because they are uncomfortable and anxious about becoming the next target.

How to Support a Cyberbullying Victim. The SPS cyberbullying curriculum’s student handout “The Role of Bystanders in Cyberbullying” explains that, “When bystanders stand up for a target, it is one of the most effective means of stopping bullying. Support from bystanders gives the target confidence. It shows the bully that the target has friends who care, and that what the bully is doing is not cool.”

Sometimes, a cyberbullying victim will approach a trusted adult for help. Teachers, even digital immigrant teachers, can assist the victim, Donlin said. “Talk to the kid, start a conversation,” he said. “If you don’t know the questions to ask, say ‘Show me’ or ‘Tell me.’”

To stop the cyberbully, Donlin recommends that teachers and administrators:

• Provide a safe place in school for the victim to go
• Take screenshots of the cyberbully’s work and save the screenshots
• Make sure parents are involved
• Make sure adults get the message to the abuser to stop
• Bring evidence to the school officials’ attention – the school needs to be actively involved in stopping the cyberbully
• Get the police involved, if need be
• Save the evidence, save the URLs, download copies to give to the police

“It’s important for the kid to have someone to talk to, an adult who will listen and not over-react,” Donlin said. “That’s the number one thing.”

You are invited to download the Seattle Public Schools’ cyberbullying curriculum. Visit http://www.seattleschools.org/area/prevention/cbms.html for the free teaching resources.

Students with food allergies can have reactions to the allergen that range from tingling, itching and hives to anaphylaxis, a serious and rapid reaction that can lead to death.

The problem for secondary school teachers is that food allergies can reach beyond the cafeteria and into the classroom. ABC News reported that a girl with a peanut allergy had a severe reaction in the classroom when a boy two rows away opened a peanut butter cup. The smell caused the girl’s anaphylaxis and she went to the emergency department with breathing problems.

Anne Munoz-Furlong, former chief executive and founder of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), said that student’s often don’t understand that food allergies are real. “It’s not a food preference,” she said. “Students need to understand that they can really hurt their classmates.”

Food allergies in the classroom. The CDC study found that the number of hospitalizations for children with food allergy reactions is an average of 9,537 each year, which is nearly double the average for the years 2001-2003.

We don’t know why food allergies are on the rise, Munoz-Furlong said, but we’re not the only country where this is occurring.

The concern for teachers is that allergic reactions to foods are more likely to happen in the classroom than during lunch.

“Everyone worries about the cafeteria,” Munoz-Furlong said. “The biggest risk is food in the classroom. A study done about allergic reactions in schools found that food was used in classroom lessons, celebrations, and holiday parties. Teachers should ask parents to become involved and put parents of allergic students in charge of arranging events like these.”

Teaching about food allergies. Forming partnerships between parents of allergic students and teachers is an important way to protect the allergic student. But teachers can also educate students about food allergies.

FAAN has resources for teachers who want to raise food allergy awareness in their classrooms at www.foodallergy.org. Resources include a short PowerPoint presentation with the facts about food allergies and a fact-or-fiction quiz.

The FAAN Website also recommends that teachers become familiar with school emergency procedures, know how to recognize an allergic reaction, and understand what to do when a reaction occurs. The site recommends alerting substitute teachers about food allergic students and avoiding using food in lesson planning.

Food bullying. Despite a teacher’s best efforts, students with food allergies can experience reactions and become a target for food bullying from their peers. In April of 2008, a Kentucky middle school student faced felony charges for placing peanut butter cookie crumbs in the lunch box of a food allergic student. The allergic student did not suffer a reaction.

“Food bullying is more common than we’d like to believe, especially in middle school where there’s so much peer pressure,” Munoz-Furlong said. “The graphic descriptions of allergic reactions can make food allergic students a target. Instead of calling attention to food bullying, the best plan is for teachers to explain that there is a no bully policy in the school.”

Teachers and schools can begin PAL (Protect a Life from Food Allergies) programs in their classrooms and schools to encourage students to keep their classmates safe. Free downloadable posters and brochures are available from FAAN at http://www.foodallergy.org/pal.html.

“We’re all in this together,” Munoz-Furlong said. “Kids need to help other kids. Teachers need to educate. If you don’t already have a child with a food allergy in class, you will.”

According to the Broward County Schools Website (www.browardcounty.com), the district was forming the policy before the state legislature voted on the new anti—bullying state law. Broward’s policy takes into account not only the traditional name-calling but also the bullying that occurs outside school walls. Any abusive behavior that affects students or adult employees is subject to the policy.

Consultant Meline Kevorkian, Ed.D., professor at Nova Southeastern University and author of Preventing Bullying, explains the impact and pervasiveness of bullying on a video at the Broward County Schools site. She said that half of all students are bullied and one in ten is bullied on a regular basis. Victims of bullying experience loneliness, depression, and suicide.

Cyberbullying has become a problem, Kevorkian said. Cyberbullies use text messages, e-mails, and social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook to spread rumors or send hateful, cruel, or annoying messages or edited pictures. Cyberbullies sometimes create Websites that criticize their victims, too.

When a student, teacher, or parent realizes bullying is happening, they report it using the forms at the Broward County Schools Website and a process of investigation, intervention, and consequences occurs.

The program’s main focus is on prevention, said Shelly Heller, Co-chair of the district’s anti-bullying task force. Both abuser and victim will receive counseling and help to stop the cycle of abuse.

The school district will be tracking the bullying complaints by computer as well and look for patterns of abuse. These patterns will help administrators direct intervention strategies.

Broward County Schools are located around Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Florida’s middle Atlantic Coast. Broward County has 260 schools and a student population of 231,208 students, making it the sixth largest school district in the country.