This week's safe schools snippets

Schools look at alternative drug programs

High school principals in Poudre School District are taking an active stance against drug use at Fort Collins, Rocky Mountain, Fossil Ridge and Poudre high schools through education and alternative-to-suspension programs. Read more in the Coloradoan.

Anti-bullying legislation attacked for allowing bullying

Anti-bullying legislation just approved by the Michigan Senate has been denounced by the father of the teenager for whom it was named because, he said, it actually allows bullying to continue. Read more in the Washington Post.

Changing our perception of—and response to—bullying

Nelson Munz. His image may come to mind for many of us when we think about bullies.

(For those of you who don’t watch, or are too high-brow to admit to watching, The Simpsons, Nelson is the quintessential bully on the show, known for his mocking, doorbell-chime hah-hah laugh.) Read more in this blog post.

Teenagers tell researchers it’s a cruel, cruel online world

State legislatures across the country have passed or proposed laws against what they call cyberbullying. But how do young people parse bullying from being mean online? And when it happens, what do they do about it?

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and released Wednesday teases out these complex, often painful threads of teen life on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Two-thirds of the teenagers surveyed said people were “mostly kind” to each other on these networks, even as 88 percent said they had witnessed “people being mean or cruel.” One in five admitted to having joined in on the cruelty. Read more in this New York Times blog.

Social media, teens, parents and whether to ‘friend’

Social media has become an extension of the school hallway for the vast majority of American students, with all the flirting, drama, occasional cruelty and flashes of maturity, according to a survey released today by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Read more in this Washington Post blog.

About our First Person series:

First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others trying to improve public education. Read our submission guidelines here.