Cyber-bullying hits Aqsarniit

Teasing on the Internet leads to fighting on the playground at Aqsarniit middle school, where principal Darlene Nuqingaq said “there are major numbers of reports of cyber-bullying.”

She refers to students who use MSN to chat with their friends at home, or who build their own web sites where they post photos of friends. These photos can easily be copied by other websites, where they can be posted with rude comments.

“It’s just really widespread and it’s carrying over to incidents that are happening in the school,” Nuqingaq told the Iqaluit District Education Authority on Monday.

The school already monitors which sites the kids visit, Nuqingaq said, and has sent a letter to parents outlining how they do that, and what parents should be doing.

Nuqingaq has also asked Stephan Kilabuk, the school’s RCMP contact, to come and speak to the kids about the issue of slandering classmates online.

“They students just do not know the legalities.”