Eighth-grade students at Great Neck North Middle School took internet safety into their own hands at an assembly May 27 with a series of student presentations on topics that ranged from cyberbullying to sexting.
Sponsored by Cablevision, presentations were followed by a question-and-answer session with state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola).
“Given how easy the internet is and the presence of social media, it is important to understand how it can be used for the wrong purposes,” Martins said. “Peer pressure works positively as much as it does negatively.”
The assembly included readings and short videos by students from Michelle Sicurella’s health class and Robin Weinrib’s computer class. As an extra project, students had limited class time to complete the project.
“They came before school, after school, during lunch,” Sicurella said. “Kids who participated were crying they were so proud of themselves.”
Topics included verbal abuse and cyberbullying, sexting, social networking, plagiarism and music downloading.
“Just a few weeks ago students made a Facebook [hate] page about a teacher here,” said Weinrib, a self-described former mean girl. “They really took this much more seriously than we thought they were going to.”
After the assembly, one student described to her a recent bullying incident in which he had intervened. She advised him to monitor the situation and report back if the bullying continues. Great Neck public schools have a zero tolerance policy for bullying.
“We recognize the fact that we have the responsibility to make sure people act safely,” said Cablevision Vice President of Education Trent Anderson. “We’re continuing to evolve the program to reflect the latest changes in technology.”
