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Juan Flores
Mrs. McCann
CP English 9
24 Match 2015
Cyberbullying Synthesis Essay (Rough Draft)
The use of new technology for communication has been rejected and oppressed by many in power
since the start of civilization for the sake of suppressing free thought and privacy under the veil of a
need for protection and safety. Bullying by making use of recent innovations in the field of computers
enables a remarkably large number of people to transmit and interact with potentially false, undesirable,
or misleading information about someone in a quicker and often less inhibited manner. The increasingly
severe problems associated with cyberbullying have driven governmental organizations to create drastic
measures with the intention of combating adverse effects that may occur with this unconventional use of
social networks and the World Wide Web. Despite claims made by supporters of such propositions, any
legislature that enables schools to oversee and discipline students for negative or inappropriate
information released online would be inconvenient and problematic. Due to their low effectiveness and
the potential danger they pose to personal freedoms, any idea that allows an educational institution to
monitor and inflict penalty upon a pupil for misuse of electronic mediums outside its premises is flawed,
problematic, and should not be implemented.
Propositions that would allow schools to maintain a regular surveillance over students in an effort
to prevent or halt adverse consequences of cyberbullying are overly costly and highly ineffective in their
purpose. According to the Christian Science Monitor, a total of "$40,500 [is being used] to track public
postings [and search] for such topics as possible truancy, drug use suicide, and other violence" (Source
A) in a Florida school district. The large sum of money that would be lost when schools implement such
proposals are a significant waste of funds that would be otherwise used for educational materials,
infrastructure development, or other concrete expenses. Moreover, as proposed in the Guelph Mercury
paper, the "fundamental causes of cyber bullying [... ] cannot be solved by criminalization" without "an
active role... in communities to combat it"(Source C). Such legislation would fail to tackle the root
causes of cyberbullying among students and therefore would bring about little positive change. Without
raising awareness of the effects of cyberbullying, any statute designed to combat it by monitoring and
punishing students based on online activities would be rendered useless given that the source of the

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problem is ignored. Any action taken by government-run schools that involves public spending used to
run vague searches and punish students for abusing of the Internet will not solve grassroots problems,
such as moral decay, that are behind the issue of cyberbullying.
Rather than solve the problem of intensifying hostility in the Internet, any measures that authorize
a constant monitoring and disciplining of students and their online activity are threat to personal
freedom that is poorly justified an immensely contradictory. Claiming that "kids can hide behind a
computer screen and say what they want to say"(Source B), Jenn Mevers attempts to explain that being
unrestrained is what leads students to use the Internet for bullying. However, this opportunity to hide
behind a screen must be preserved in order to let common people disclose information or freely transmit
unpopular or negative beliefs to the world. Because some young people can be intimidated to speak in
public or voice their opinion personally, being able to share information and thoughts freely and
anonymously in the World Wide Web is an indispensable tool crucial to maintaining freedom of
speech.On the proposed policies to police the use of the web by students,"parents [complain] that
[tracking students' activity] amounts to government spying into private lines" (Source A). The policy of
granting schools the ability to spy and act upon anything that happens outside of their premises is an
imperious way to disregard privacy and liberty which should not be infringed in democratic societies.
Educational institutions must not be permitted to keep watch on, intrude into, or take action based on
information released by students outside schools in order to prevent the government from having an
overreach or excessive control in the life of students.
Write conclusion here:
1.Restate thesis

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2.In 2 sentences, go broad.

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3."in general statement" similar to the opener