Bill MacKenty

Cyberbullying Protocol

The Protocol

In summary:

1. become aware
2. communicate to the team
3. get the story straight
4. intervene appropriately
5. follow up

In depth:

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE. UNFORTUNATELY, CYBERBULLYING IS A "DROP EVERYTHING AND DEAL WITH IT" ISSUE.

1. When an adult in the school becomes aware of a cybullying issue, or an issue they think might be cyberbullying, they should immediately report the concern to their school principal, counselor, technology coach, or technology director. If the adult has access to any digital information at this time (i.e. websites, blogs, messages, etc.) then they should take the opportunity to gather evidence through digital photos, screenshots, forwarding messages, etc. whenever possible.

2. Once informed, a member of the school administration team should communicate to:

the building principal
the building counselor
the technology director


3. The team should designate a fact finder, who will develop a timeline of the incident with any additional evidence (screen shots, network access logs, etc). The fact finder is responsible for making sure the team has a very clear understanding of the timeline of events.

4. The team should reconvene, make sure everyone agrees and is on board with the timeline, and then hand-off intervention to the building principal.

5. The team should meet after the incident to:

briefly debrief and review the incident.
ensure appropriate steps are taken in a larger context to address the issue.