LITTLE ROCK — Schools need to have at least one official tasked with keeping current on social-media trends so they can better respond to the changing nature of cyber-bullying, a Pulaski County Special School District employee told the Arkansas Board of Education on Thursday.
Deborah Roush, spokesman for the Pulaski County Special district, addressed the board at its monthly meeting as part of a report on all forms of bullying.
Roush said students use social media to do everything from creating fake Facebook pages aimed at picking on others to organizing fights on Twitter to posting videos on YouTube.
She said some students are now using Instagram, a popular photo-sharing application, to bully others online.
School districts need to keep up with the trends as they shift, which she said happens frequently.
"This is complicated stuff, and it's always changing," Roush said. "We might not be able to educate all of our principals and vice principals ... but we can have someone charged with doing that and keeping trained and updated."
Roush noted cyber-bullying has resulted in several students in other parts of the country committing suicide in recent weeks.