Cyberbullying task force to release report today
Posted Mar 22, 2012 07:00:45 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Parents and activists are hoping the province’s cyberbullying task force takes a strong stance in its final report on the pervasive problem.
Chair Wayne MacKay will release the report and recommendations in Halifax this morning.
The task force was created after a series of teen suicides last year and members have spent the last 12 months holding meetings and consulting with educators and parents in hopes of finding a solution to the problem of online intimidation.
Sharon Brown’s 17-year-old daughter committed suicide last year after months of relentless bullying at school.
Brown says she’s hoping to see concrete, action-oriented recommendations from the task-force.
“I think it’s a big issue,” she said. “I lost my daughter over it. You know I’m never going to see her have a baby, I’m never going to see her graduate from school. I’m never going to see her get married.
“I think that there should be a law, just like in the United States, that they [the bullies] should be punished for what they did.”
Pam Muchison’s 15-year-old daughter also killed herself last year.
“She got several text messages and it was on Facebook and other forms like that on the computer,” Murchison said. “Just people telling people she was no good, calling her names and telling her to kill herself.”
She says she hopes the recommendations bring tangible changes that will give schools and law enforcement officers the necessary tools to clamp down on bullying tactics.
“They need to put actions behind their words,” she said. “And whatever they come down with, they need to follow through with it and not just do lip service.”
