RICHMOND, Va. -- Students were pepper sprayed and an officer was hurt in a large fight at Highland Springs High School in Henrico County on Monday. On Tuesday, a stabbing incident among two seventh graders at Brookland Middle School left one in critical condition. A student threatened to bring a gun to campus at that same middle school less than 24 hours prior.
School and city administrators, as well as law enforcement, say these kinds of violent acts on school grounds may sometimes be the result of bullying, harassment or other conflicts starting on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
"We tend to think of bullying as someone pushing another kid or somebody stealing lunch money, but there’s an asymmetric conflict around bullying that exists online. And it’s Instagram, it’s TikTok, it’s things that parents were never exposed to," said Dr. William Pelfrey, a cyberbullying and school safety researcher with VCU's Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs.
“Stopping that is really difficult because parents don’t get to see it, teachers don’t get to see it. All they get to see is the consequences, the aftereffects, the violence that ensues from bullying and unless they know it’s going on, there’s nothing that parents, teachers, the SRO can do to prevent it unless they act proactively," Pelfrey said.
Pelfrey believes acting proactively means cultivating a school environment that allows students to feel comfortable telling them about bullying or harassment on social media may.
Mental health professionals with ChildSavers say making that possible in school districts will need to start at earlier grade levels, due to the uptick in students they serve to experience issues that begin online and then permeate into their school day.
“We are seeing a lot of bullying at younger and younger ages, even down into elementary school, upper elementary, we’re having kids present with lots of stuff related to peer relationships, even if it’s not related to bullying or harassment yet, just struggling with navigating peer relationships," said Jessica Gregory with ChildSavers.
Gregory said ChildSavers mental health workers in districts like Hopewell City Schools or Richmond Public Schools have seen an uptick in depression, anxiety and negative body image issues, related to social media presence.
Pelfrey believes it may get worse, due to more students having access to online forums or other platforms.
“It’s going to continue and it’s probably going to expand," he said. "Five years ago, elementary school students did not have computers. Because of the pandemic, every elementary school student in seemingly the world, or the US anyway, now carries a Chromebook and that Chromebook is connected to a social media platform. And it’s pretty well regulated at the elementary level, but group work is strongly encouraged so by middle school, kids are working together in groups and sometimes they’re doing that online or offline and that provides a great forum for cyberbullying.”
Henrico County Police are now encouraging families to take their child's social media activity seriously in order to prevent students from turning to violence, saying tips have either helped in investigations or violence prevention.
"I think it's a collective effort, on everybody's part, whether it be schools, mental health, social services, community and law enforcement, we all have to play a role in keeping our schools safe and making sure kids have the right resources," said Henrico County Police Chief Eric English.
In Richmond, research compiled by the school district's digital workgroup suggests that most incidents involving student accounts fall under the category of violence toward others via messaging and Hangouts.
Since the start of the school year, an analyzation tool called Gaggle reported 3,500 alerts with the majority happening in the middle and high school levels.
On Monday, October 17, Richmond's school board adopted a motion that would reduce classroom distractions and eliminate access to violent content, via platforms like YouTube.
"We have students that are eight years old, five years old, who are able to access this kind of content and it's reckless on our part that we have not curbed it," said board member Kenya Gibson.
Gregory is encouraging parents and guardians to familiarize themselves with popular platforms to understand their impact on students.
“I think sometimes, adults can sort of, especially adults who are not as aware or media literate can have that kind of, ‘It’s just online. It doesn’t really mean anything.” But to a lot of our kids and students, it’s a place where they’re very vulnerable and they share information, and when they share that information and it gets used against them, it has a serious impact on them," she said.
