school daze

New York Kids to Maybe Face Consequences for Being Terrible to Each Other Online

A boy plays a game on a laptop compuer at the IT event
Tweeting malicious rumors. Photo: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/2012 AFP

Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York’s state legislature have agreed to a bill that would require schools to designate an official to respond to reports of cyber-bullying among students. The bill, which will be voted on next week, does not include a corresponding criminal charge (which some lawmakers favored), though it does require “coordination with the police when appropriate.” Additionally, the bill says that schools will have to develop strategies to combat social-media-based harassment and mandates that teachers and administrators receive training in the surely horrifying art of detecting it. Godspeed, educators! Our (informed) guess is that the only thing meaner than a teenager is a teenager on the Internet.

NY Kids to Face Consequences for Cyberbullying