My View on Bullying/Cyber Bullying

After watching the documentary about Jamie Nabozny and reading about cyberbullying, I felt that bullying is a huge issue that should be taken care of right away. This problem of bullying may involve parents and school officials or maybe the court if the case becomes dangerous.
In the documentary of Jamie Nabozny, Jamie tells his story of being bullied from when he was a young child up until high school. When he was in middle school, many kids noticed that Jamie was a homosexual and made fun of him constantly for it. He would get poked and get verbally abused by the other middle school students. At first Jamie didn't say anything or get anyone involved with the bullying that was going on. However, the bullying became a bigger issue and Jamie began getting slapped, kicked and punched to the point of taking a trip to the hospital. Jamie was so depressed from all that was going on, he tried to committ suicide which was unsuccessful. Jamie and his parents warned school officials like the principal who simply stated : "Boys will be boys". This statement made me furious because there is no excuse for bullying another peer, especially when Jamie was getting physically abused to the point of going to the hospital by these kids. In my opinion, it is the school's responsibility to handle issues that happen on school grounds. The school officials should suspend these students for the way they treated Nabozny, however the principal just stated "Boys will be boys". It's horrible to see how a student could be so abused by a few kids, and witnesses choose not to speak up and help out while the bullying that occurs. I believe that if other peers got involved in helping out Nabozny and supporting him, he wouldn't feel as depressed or have suicidal thoughts ever. From the packet we read, "When Cyberbullying Turns Deadly", there were various incidents of adolescent people being cyberbullied. Many of these victims became so depressed that they committed suicide and not even therapy could help them. One victim named Ricky Alatorre who was 16 years of age from Indiana, was made fun of for being heavy and someone in his class secretly took a picture of him while working in class. The boy became devastated to the point where he had suicidal thoughts, however with the help and guidance of his family and school he became stronger. He stated " I had thought about suicide, it looked very welcoing at certain times." It makes me feel happy to see that school officials and his family got involved in helping Ricky and not letting him get to the point of killing himself. On the other hand, in the documentary about Jamie Nabozny, school officials stated "Boys will be boys", which is not a solution to assist a student being bullied.

Students and the fourth amendment

         The fourth amendment protects citizens unreasonable searches and seizures. In the case of New Jersey vs. TLO , TLO was accused of smoking in the school bathroom. According to Theodore Choplick, the assistant vice principal, smoking in the school bathroom is violating school rules. Since TLO had violated the school rule of smoking in the school bathroom, I believe that the school had the right to search TLO's purse in result of her poor decision.
        In the Constitution, the fourth amendment does protect citizens unreasonable searches and seizures, however when any student is on school grounds, the rules may shift a little. Public schools in the United States are run by the government, which allows schools the right to search students if they are performing a suspicious act. I think it would be crucial to allow all students at any high school they attend, to be randomly drug tested. According to the article I debated from,  random drug testing reduces violent behaviors, classrooom disruptions, and criminal activity. I think that from this study, random drug testing would give fear to the students leading them not to participate in the act of using drugs. I belive that students would not get involved in criminal activity later in life, because there would be random drug testing stopping students from doing drugs leading them to possible psychological problems later in life. In the article "Student random Drug Testing -one compoment of a drug prevention program", student random drug testing would get parents involved in the school drug-prevention efforts. I think this would be crucial because parents would not have to try so hard to get their children in line, and they would know what their children are doing on the wekends.