About half of all young people have experienced some form of cyber-bullying, and ten to twenty percent experience it regularly.  In Florida, 12 year old Rebecca Sedwick took her life after receiving taunting text messages from 15 girls.  How many lives will be taken or kids damaged before someone makes a stand?

Cyber-bullies should be punished for their behavior, and schools should get involved even if it is off school property. No form of bullying is right, so bullying should be treated the same as physical and verbal bullying. The words kids say to each other can be taken to offense.

“This is not just kids being kids. Its verbal, emotional assault and should be taken seriously,” said Theresa Rulien, CEO of Child Guidance Center.

Some may argue that schools should not get involved.

“Its students’ expression of their own thoughts and feelings to their friends,” said 16-year-old Young Cho.

While that may be true, do the kids who are being called names think it’s just their friends expressing themselves? One of my friends has been affected by cyber-bulling and almost took her life because of it. West really takes on the popular phrase ‘West is best’. When cyber bullying goes on in west Dr. Pots takes the initiative to find the cyber-bully and punish them for their behavior. People can hide from their feelings, and their loved ones may not know what is going on with them until it is too late.

The introduction of social networking has brought about the rise of cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is increasing as new apps pop up, for example the new popular app Yik Yak, which allows people to post comments about others while remaining anonymous. Schools need to take a stand against cyber-bullying to prevent this from happening in the future. At West, Yik Yak was targeting many kids in negative ways, but Dr. Pots sent out an email to warn parents about the app, and since then the popularity of the app has decreased. Sitting down and talking to the cyber-bully can be just enough to save a life. Once schools start treating cyber-bullies similar to bullies, cyber-bullying will decrease and the numbers of kids affected by it will decrease. As technology continues to improve, the more cyber-bullying will become a problem, unless schools take initiative and address the problem.