As students groggily readjusted to an early schedule, the loud speaker echoed principal Tom Lietz’s voice, commencing the 2016-17 school year. This year was different, however. Instead of a short-and-sweet welcome message, Lietz read a “Day One” pledge to the entire school as part of a new initiative to combat bullying both in school and online.
“So let me be clear,” Lietz said, “any act of bullying, harassment or humiliation against another person… student or adult- online or offline, is against our values.”
All teachers were given a copy of the pledge to read throughout the week. Students were asked to sign a copy of the pledge to take action against harassment. The Day One Pledge is a legacy of Tyler Clementi. Clementi was a victim of cyber bullying and harassment, which eventually led to his suicide.
According to pledge’s website, Joesph and Jane Clementi decided to spread their son’s story and developed the pledge as a way to stand up against bullying.
Tyler’s story inspired thousands, which also led to his family creating the Tyler Clementi Foundation to bring attention to and end bullying. They have many resources for a person being bullied, such as ways to end it, or how to get help.
“My step-sister was bullied,” sophomore Madison Herrington said. “I think the pledge will be a good way to help prevent others from being emotionally or physically scarred.”
Cyber bullying and cyber-harassment happens daily and not much can legally be done. What’s worse is that schools aren’t in a place to punish and end these situations. What’s online is often anonymous or gone within a few seconds, and there isn’t always proof for somebody to see and take action.
“We do our best to discipline [cyber bullies], but it is difficult and challenging, since it doesn’t always happen in school,” Lietz said. “The advice I have would be to get off social media, or block the people causing problems.”
Schools are able to talk about cyber bullying and harassment and bring attention to them, but legally there’s not much they can do. When something is documented and administrators can see exactly what was said or done, and that bullying behavior affects the school day, they can take action.
“I liked how UHS handled the rolling out of #Day1. It was brought up three times during the first week: by Mr. Lietz, during an announcement, and then in third hour on Wednesday and sixth hour on Friday,” teacher Julie Wright said. “I don’t think every student had an opportunity to sign the pledge, but I believe quite a few did. I think the commitment needs to be repeated more than the first week of school. I think it helps, but I don’t think it will end bullying.”
In addition to bringing more attention to the problem of bullying, The Tyler Clementi Foundation has helpful links on its site http://tylerclementi.org/, including how to get free legal advice to stand up to bullies.