7 Suggestions for Sound Cyberbullying Policies for 21st Century Administrator

Author and attorney Aimee M. Bissonette writes:

“Schools that fail to take action to curb cyberbullying among students may find themselves defending their actions (or lack of action) in court, worse still, dealing with the tragedy of a student suicide.”

One can argue whether schools are responsible or not, but the societal expectations are simple: if school administrators know it’s happening, then they had better do something about it." The legal system generally evaluates a school’s right to intervene in off-campus cyberbullying by determining if the victim’s educational experience has been harmed by the actions or the perpetrator. What is a school administrator to do?
Perhaps as Bissonette suggests, the best way to deal with cyberbullying is to proactively develop effective policy that defines specifically what is considered cyberbullying and the range of actions the school or district should take to address the problems when they happen.

What are the must-have elements in any school or district’s cyberbullying policy? Here’s some suggestions I have taken the liberty of paraphrasing from Bissonette's book, Cyber Law: Maximizing Safety and Minimizing Risk in Classrooms.

• Avoid zero-tolerance and highly punitive policies. According to Bissonnette, if policies are too punitive they actually might discourage individuals from reporting instances of cyberbullying.
• Develop policies that “allow a range of sanctions from verbal warnings, to detention, to suspension or expulsion.” This flexibility allows administrators to provide the appropriate level of consequences for the offense. Not all cyberbullying rises to the same level of severity.
• Make sure your cyberbullying polices contain good definitions. Define cyberbullying in such a way that all students, parents and staff understand what it is. 
• Cyberbullying policies should make it clear that they “apply to all instances of cyberbullying.” The policy needs to make it clear that whether it happens on campus or off it is covered. Also, it should make it clear that it applies to the use of school computers and networks too.
• The policies should also describe procedures for reporting instances of cyberbullying. Included in that description are what victims, witnesses and staff do to report instances of cyberbullying. It is also important to describe the steps the school or district will take in investigating a report of cyberbullying.
• Cyberbullying policies should also describe parent notification procedures. When and how parents will be notified should be detailed.
• Finally, according to Bissonette, policy should describe all the devices that might be used in cyberbullying. It should clearly state, for example, that cell phones, cameras, and other electronic communication devices could be used in cyberbullying.

In our current climate, schools must develop sound policies to guide how they will deal with cyberbullying when it happens. In 21st century schools, 21st century leaders know the importance of proactively dealing with this issue.

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4 Social Media Listening Strategies for 21st Century School Leaders

In their book Why Social Media Matters: School Communication in the Digital Age authors Kitty Porterfield and Meg Carnes argue that for school leaders to use social media effectively, they not only use it to communicate out information, they must also engage in listening to what stakeholders are saying.

"Listening online gives leaders insight into their communities in a way that face-to-face meetings and surveys do not."

It is through social media that people sometimes reveal their true feelings. If they do not think you are listening, they may say things quite unlike those occasions when they think you are. Using social media to listen to what your stakeholders are saying is another way for you to get in touch with what they really want. To do that, Porterfield and Carnes suggest establishing a listening strategy for your school or district. So how does one establish this? Here's some suggestions I've paraphrased from their book, Why Social Media Matters: School Communication in the Digital Age.

• Decide how much time will be spent listening. Will it be once a day? Once a Week? Portfield and Carnes suggest that school leaders need to listen to their school or district's social media channels at least once a day. If a crisis occurs, obviously it will be necessary to listen more often. For example, during a contentious school board decision or during a well-publicized event involving a staff member or student, listening to social media channels needs to be much more often than once a day.
• Designate personnel who will do the listening and report back to administration. These individuals are charged with the task of listening to your social media channels. Large districts can perhaps charge their communications teams with these tasks. Small districts may have to select current district staff to serve on a listening team.
• Portferfield and Carnes suggest developing a "Social Media Collection Tool" to report out what was found from listening. This gives the district or school a physical record of what others are saying on social media sites. School leaders need to have a record of what conversations are occuring about their schools or districts, and this tool satisfies that need.
• Develop a plan on how the school or district will respond to what is heard on social media. School leaders need to evaluate the influence level of those engaging in conversations on social media. Answers to such questions as the following are also important: How will you respond to inaccurate or incomplete information being shared about your school or organization? What offical media channels will you use in your response if you decide to do so?

The perception that most school leaders seem to have of social media is a tool for making announcements to their stakeholders rather than a means to engage that same group in larger conversations about how we're doing our jobs. It is imperative that 21st century school leaders establish a social media listening strategy for their school or district in age where people are talking about us through social media whether we're listening or not.


Next Up: Social Media Listening Tools for 21st Century School Leaders

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Finally, Definitive Manual for School Leaders on Engaging in Using Social Media

In their new book, Why Social Media Matters: School Communication in the Digital Age, authors Kitty Porterfield and Meg Carnes write:

“Skill in communication is a key ingredient for school leaders’ success in today’s complex education environment, and this communication now includes social media.”

As these author’s suggest, school leaders “can either learn to use these powerful tools or stand hopelessly by and the information---good and bad---swirls around them.” School administrators are still spending too much time trying to decide whether social media is an enemy or an ally. What they don’t realize, that choice isn’t really up to them. Social media is here to stay. It’s not a fad to be waited out. It’s not gimmick to avoid, and it is not a piece of contraband that can be stopped at the schoolhouse door with policy and Internet filters. Social media is 21st century communications, and school leaders would be guilty of mal-practice not to both learn about its power and place in our modern society.

Portfield and Carnes' book Why Social Media Matters: School Communication in the Digital Age, is an excellent starting point for school leaders to begin the journey or learning about the power of social media. I’ve read several books on social media written for school leaders this year, and this book is the best by far. It is a no-nonsense, easy-to-read manual on social media. I would  place it on top of my Ed Tech Book List for 2012.

Why Social Media Matters: School Communication in the Digital Age begins by offering readers, specifically school leaders, a view of social media for what it is, a 21st century form of communication. This is a slightly different perspective from other books I’ve read this year, which have focused on its power in the classroom and in developing professional learning networks. Portfield and Carnes zero in on the very arguments and ideas that interest me as a school level principal:

• Why is social media so important to me as a school leader? Why should I care? What happens if I stay on the social media sidelines? How do I get started and what tools should I start with?
• How can I plan a social media strategy for my school or district? What tools do I need to be engaged in using in my social media campaign? What place do these same tools have in my classrooms and schools?
• How can I make the content of my social media messages effective? What should I communicate through social media? How do I set up a dialogue through social media with my stakeholders? What kinds of guidelines do I need to keep the conversation productive and focused on issues so that I don’t appearing to be censoring honest criticism?

Why Social Media Matters: School Communication in the Digital Age is not a book that offers strategies for implementing the media in the classroom. It isn’t just a book about engaging in social media for the purposes of creating and sustaining online professional learning networks. It is a perfect manual for school administrators wanting to maximize the use of social media to communication with parents 21st century-style through engagement in on-going conversations that aren’t one-way, but multi-ways. This volume needs to be required study and reading in school administration classes everywhere.

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Learning from Verizon's Experience: 5 Lessons for School Leaders About Social Media

Verizon’s decision to not charge customers a $2 convenience fee is a lesson about power of social media, for all of us, including 21st century school leaders.(See MSNBC’s Article “Verizon Drops $2 Convenience Fee.”) As authors Randy Beal and Judy Strauss write in Radically Transparent: Managing and Monitoring Reputations Online, “The Internet provides a megaphone for the disgruntled---with no entry barrier, little legal accountability, instant commentary, full multimedia communication, and a free distribution channel to millions worldwide.” Verizon heard that megaphone and decided to let customers know they were listening.


When Verizon decided to announce a $2 fee, they ran right into thousands of consumers yelling loudly through the power of social media. As a Verizon customer, I even joined in a bit myself. Ultimately though, Verizon did what is probably the smartest thing they could do. They issued a statement that said, “At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute a fee at this time.” That is probably a textbook answer and response to a crowd empowered by social media. The company did not continue to try to defend the fee. They immediately acknowledged a change in course. That alone demonstrates one important principle described by authors Beal and Strauss, and that is: Your customers have to feel like you are listening to them. By announcing their plans to not charge a fee they clearly demonstrate their willingness to listen. Verizon should gain more positives from this response than any 2 dollar fee would ever give them.

The whole Verizon incident illustrates perfectly what Beal and Strauss say in Radically Transparent about the 21st century medium, “Social media are like word-of-mouth on steroids.” Businesses have known for a long time the power of plain word of mouth. Schools and their leaders would do well to pay attention to this power too.

Besides some great lessons for those studying the power of social media and marketing though, there are lessons for 21st century school leaders from the Verizon Incident too.

• There is a conversation online about you or your school/district and you may not know it is even happening. Beal and Strauss advocate for taking steps to listen to this conversation. In a previous post, (The Oft-Ignored 21st Century Leadership for School Leaders), I offered some suggestions on how to do that. Yet, too many school leaders, from the district level to the school level, are still ignoring social media and considering it a fad. They spend too much time finding ways to limit access to it and dismissing its impact, when they should embrace and accept it as a fact of life. The bottom line to this one is simple: ignore that online conversation to the peril of your school and perhaps yourself.
• Even though there is a conversation about you or your school/district online, you can’t control its direction. Too many school leaders and policymakers still think they can control the direction of this online conversation. They create all manner of rules and laws trying to keep the conversation at a minimum. They even try lawsuits when something is said that is objectionable. Ultimately, neither rules, policy, nor lawsuits are going to stop that conversation. Instead, 21st century school leaders need to learn how to respond effectively to social media. They need to fight fire with fire so to speak.
• You cannot control that conversation; the best you can hope for is to effectively respond to it. What does an effective response to a less-than-flattering social media posting look like? Well, those using social media don't like spin. They don't like attempts to hide behind the law or authority. The best way to respond is perhaps to open up and be what Beal and Strauss call "being radically transparent." That means being honest with people and not looking like you are still trying to hide something. That means being as honest as possible and avoiding "educationalese" or jargon. 
• Be careful of your response to that conversation. As Beal and Strauss point out, “The Internet community comes down hard on those who employ conversation spin, control, manipulation, or spam.” Should we find ourselves in a "Verizon-like-situation," a careful, well-thought-out response is a must. Social media has created a “no-spin zone” of sorts where spin is at your own risk. Taking time to plan a response is a must. There is no room for knee-jerk answers.
• As Beal and Strauss emphasize repeatedly in their book, “Be radically transparent or risk your reputation and top line.” This means using plain language, being sincere, and being candid. No generic marketing messages allowed. Welcome responses and feedback. As school leaders you have to work hard to build relationships with your community through social media, and that means being transparent.

Recently quite a few people and organizations have run headlong into the power of social media. Besides this event with Verizon, Bank of America found out firsthand the power of social media when it proposed additional fees on its customers. Then there was Lowes and its decision to pull ads from the Muslim American reality show. They also found out about the "steroid-effect" of online communication.Finally, ask Governor Brownback of Kansas, his staff,  and the poor principal who tried to force student Emma Sullivan to write that letter of apology. In every single one of these instances, an organizational or personal reputation was on the line.The one thing in common is how the organization or individual responded and resulting effect on their reputation. Social media is here to stay, and school leaders who learn to effectively use it will be more successful communicators to their stakeholders and they may perhaps head a reputation crisis too.

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