Picture this: You're walking down a hallway in a school when, just ahead, you see people fighting. When the fight is broken up by an administrator, you know those involved will be reprimanded.
Compare that to this picture: You're walking down the same hallway, and a girl is walking in front of you. As soon as people see her, they start staring and whispering. You know this is happening because you saw the posts and tweets.
You watch the girl try to be brave in the face of rumors and taunting and you know teachers cannot do anything about the cyber bullying.
Times are changing. Sure, the occasional fistfight erupts but people are turning to social networks to bully others. Websites are created for the sole purpose of back-biting and cruel words.
Yet, physical actions still have more repercussions than words. Laws need to be made to protect people. Bullying in any form should be viewed as a serious offense.
As a high school student, I see kids get hurt from the cruelty on social networks. I'm not bashing social networks (I use them myself), but there need to be repercussions for cyber bullying before we lose more kids than we already have.
Abbey Hollister
Averill Park