14 DAY TRIAL // The issue of cyber bullying has been around ever since the earliest days of the Internet, but it got exponentially more visible as the cases of such acts rose in numbers by the same ratio. Text messages, offensive emails and videos being posted on YouTube, everything was turned into a means of threatening and oppressing those that could not defend themselves.
A survey conducted by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL in short) has found that 16 percent of the teachers had fallen victims of cyber bullying. That's an astounding number, especially corroborated with the finding that out of it, 66.7 percent are junior school teachers who have received unwelcome email or texts. That means that most of the bullying is actually being carried out by kids 11 and younger!
Apparently, the older kids get, the wiser. Or the less violent, but there's no way of telling. But the violent conduct is not done solely by children, management and fellow teachers are at it as well, and in a 'good' percentage in secondary schools, 7.3. Still, the bulk comes from students, as 25 percent of their tutors have received unwanted emails and 21.9 reported text messages that disturbed them. I don't know how this looks like to you, but basic math tells us that in a school of 50 teachers, and in most there are at least 70 - 100, at least one will have a bone to pick with another.
All's well, in the end, as the same organization reported that last year's survey had found that 45 percent of the teachers had been subject to email attacks. It's a big drop in numbers, but the fact that it's not gone (and probably never will be) is concerning. The system couldn't handle real life bullies in the past, so there's little chance the present cyber version will be constrained.