Sexting and sextorition is school violence that usually blindsides school officials, as a recent Oregon case showed.
In Oregon, Clatskanie school officials settled a $2.5 million Title IX federal lawsuit that accused them of failing to protect several middle school girls from lurid sexual extortion and bullying by male students. The district also paid $75,000 to each of the girls.
The Clatskanie school got off easy. Cases like this can cost those involved up to $10 million a pop. This is problem for every school, including yours.
June was Internet Safety Month and the cyberbullying, sexting and sextortion problem is everywhere. According to Online Child Safety provider Mobicip, the statistics are not comforting.
- 9% to 35% of young people are victims of some form of electronic violence.
- Cyberbullying is rampant in the American high school and is related to low self-esteem, anger, frustration, and a variety of serious psychological problems.
- What is more disturbing is that only 7% of U.S. parents are concerned about it.
Sexting, sextortion and cyberbullying are all HUGE liability threats for most schools. Even if the events take place off school grounds, outside of school hours and without school personnel or equipment involved, a school can (and most likely will) be held accountable if it has knowledge of these events.
In most states, school teachers, administrators and even staff are mandated reporters (people who have regular contact with vulnerable people such as children and are therefore legally required to ensure a report is made when abuse is observed or suspected).
As Larry D. Teverbaugh writes in Cyberbullying and school liability:
As a matter of course, parents are generally responsible for the acts of their children until the age of 18. However, during school hours, public schools assume the custodial role over children. The United States Supreme Court has held that teachers and school administrators, it is said, act in loco parentis in their dealings with students; their authority is that of the parent. Under this assumption, parents entrust the safety and wellbeing of their children to teachers and administrators. As we might expect, and as the reports of cyberbullying incidents rise, so has the number of lawsuits against schools, teachers and administrators.
Attempting to skirt liability by trying “not to find out” is also (obviously) not a path schools can take because once an accusation is made, the school must investigate. If the school doesn’t investigate (and punish the perpetrators), we’ve seen parents sue and call a big press conference. This happened recently in Houston (see below).
Damned if you know and damned if you don’t. What’s a school to do? In the Oregon case the Clatskanie School District announced the following changes:
- Increasing mental health services for the schools
- Formed an anti-bullying committee that includes students, parents and community members
- Spoke with the staff and students about sexual harassment
- Added more clubs to increase student participation in extracurriculars
- Increased supervision by staff in the hallways
- Increased communication with parents
- Updated their safety plan
- Updated drug, alcohol and tobacco policies
- Updated cell phone policies
- Reorganized administrative structure
- Administrators attended training on student discipline, rights
Not sure what rules school officials can follow? There are national resources on cyberbullying and the law but it would be wise to search for the rules in your state.
This is where The Soteria Group can help. Although we’ve made a solid reputation for the upgrade the physical aspects of school safety, we can train you to craft a cyberbullying, sexting and sextortion policy that conforms with the laws in your state. Let us help you before your school is on the news.