Kids and technology can be a bad idea, as some are filming their beatdowns of classmates for YouTube. The Post reported about "cyberbashing" yesterday and found some videos from the NYC area. Basically, it's just sick:
In one locally produced video, a mob of pupils from Lehman High School in The Bronx punches and kicks a freshman of Middle Eastern descent as he emerges from the Tremont East diner across the street.
They then shove him against a brick wall while he cowers from their blows. At least two other students, meanwhile, scramble to capture the twisted action on cellphone cameras.
The final, edited product, which runs nearly three minutes, comes complete with a hip-hop soundtrack and opening title - "Mamood Had a Bad Day!"
Critics of bullying warn that "the chances of even more violent retaliation become infinitely greater" because videos can be seen by many more people.
NY State does not have an anti-bullying law. The head of the NY State Chapter of BullyPolice.org Debra Shaw says, "What we're seeing are often criminal assaults. If a parent beat his own kid the way these kids are beating their classmates, that parent would be arrested and the child taken by authorities." Maybe this is an unspoken reason why homeschooling is so attractive to some.
And students in Quebec were "sent home" after they filmed a teacher losing his temper and posted the clip on YouTube. The kids apparently set-up the teacher, and other students notified administration, which asked YouTube to take down the clip. But the teacher, who is on voluntary sick leave, is so "embarrassed" that he may not return to teach.
