NORA CANELLAKIS, CONTRIBUTOR

A month ago, Principal Cahall was interviewed by Will Thomas, Fox 5 News Anchor and reporter, regarding cyber bullying in a new social media app. Originally created as a virtual news board for college students, Yik Yak, led to an arrest in Indiana. The app’s user anonymity raises concerns of its use as a hub for cyber bullying among younger crowds. Although it is intended for people over the age of seventeen, it is easily downloaded, and utilized by any crowd. As a new app, Yik Yak, has not yet taken hold as a major source of cyber bullying, but even Principal Cahall agrees it, “could easily be very dangerous”.

Programs and sites like Yik Yak open the greater discussion of cyber bullying and its management in a high school setting. Principal Cahall urges a proactive mindset by monitoring social media sites, educating scholars on the proper uses of social media, and creating an open environment where students feel comfortable to share information. Although Cahall provides useful solutions for the management of cyber bullying, he admits that currently no system is put in place to regulate it as it is, “hard to put in a policy”. Instead, Wilson can only urge scholars to use social media sites appropriately, and educate them in the proper ways of doing so. Cahall believes that cyber bullying is not a major issue at Wilson and is usually only seen as a problem when Wilson students reply to, “beef from outside of school”.

Today more than 80 percent of all teenagers regularly use cell phones, making it a popular form of technology and therefore a common source of bullying. As there is a greater availability of technology among teens, bullies are no longer restricted to the school environment, but rather have the ability to attack others through any social media site. Cyber bullying is becoming a common form of bullying among teens, and over half of youths who use social mediums have witnessed bullying via that social site. Although cyber bullying may not appear to be a major issue in today’s schools, it increasingly is. Social networking plays a large role in the lives of youths today, and teens become unintentional victims of cyber bullying.

GRAPHIC BY SARAH TORRESEN, VISUAL CONTENT EDITOR