Harlingen school district, local officials confront cyberbullying concerns

HARLINGEN – In the old days, a victim of bullying could leave it at school.

These days, the torments follow the victim home, to bed, under the covers in the middle of the night, enabled by the pandora’s box of smart phones and other digital devices.

Laura Garcia, 18, remembers being cyberbullied in middle school.

“I think it really affected me a lot because I’m not the same person I was in middle school,” said Laura, a senior at the Harlingen School for Health Professions.

“I used to be more outgoing,” she said. “I am more cautious about where I am and who I’m with.”

She stopped and considered for a moment then added, “Little by little it’s gotten better.”

Laura is lucky. She survived the torments of her middle school years and has even excelled as a serious academic.

Sadly, many victims don’t make it past the misery. They die a little inside, their creativity and vitality seeming to wilt before the memory of the constant abuse. In the worst-case scenario, they take their own lives or explode in rage and hurt others.

After the shooting in Uvalde, school officials, law enforcement entities, community leaders and mental health professionals are taking a strong look at the psychological factors that may factor into such vicious acts. They’re looking at bullying; they’re looking at teen suicide; they’re looking at trauma of all kinds that has turned so many places across the country into an urban battlefield.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bullying of any form can result in physical injury, social and emotional distress, self-harm, and even death. Targets of bullying can experience depression, anxiety and sleep difficulties. Such ongoing trauma from classmates can disrupt a student’s concentration, resulting in poor grades and even dropping out of school.

Headlines have been rife for years with teenagers taking their lives after being bullied.

Consider the case of Amanda Todd, a 15-year-old Canadian girl who hanged herself in 2012; Phoebe Prince, also 15, who took her life at her Massachusetts home in 2010; Eric Mohat, 17, of Ohio who committed suicide in 2007; Carl Walker-Hoover, age 11, who hung himself with an extension cord in Boston in 2009.

And then there’s Megan Meier, who ended her life in 2006 just a few days before her 14th birthday. Hers was one of the first high-profile suicides blamed on cyberbullying. In the aftermath of such trauma, her family set up the Megan Meier Foundation. The organization’s website is filled with disturbing statistics.

The site says that 20 percent of middle and high school students report being bullied each year.

Almost all forms of bullying peak in middle school. More specifically, sixth grade students reported the highest percentage of bullying at 29 percent.

The percentage of those targeted by cyberbullying has increased from 18 percent in 2007 to 37 percent in 2019.

Almost 60 percent of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online.

Students who experienced bullying or cyberbullying are nearly two times more likely to attempt suicide.

The Harlingen school district is also taking a stern look at the mental health of its students and their families, stronger than ever.

Sylvia Gamboa, counselor for the Harlingen school district, says all staff are trained on bullying procedures.

“We look at the mental health resources that we already provide in the district, and we are continuing to add layers of support to our students so that we can really look at it on a comprehensive level and make sure that we are working with any student that may be needing assistance,” she said.

Anytime a case of bullying is reported to school employees, there is an investigation that takes place. The administration on that campus will investigate the situation, which will include interviewing alleged bullies as well as victims and witnesses.

“In regards to mental health we do have our school counselors who work with the students,” Gamboa said. “We encourage the students as well as the parents to contact the school counselor if the child is having any issues with regards to anxiety or depression. We also have a licensed professional counselor that we have in the district that’s available to any HCISD student. Our students can see her with no cost and they don’t need a referral.”

Human Resource Officers from the Harlingen Police Department also investigate accusations of bullying.

“We get all the information, we take the report, and we do any investigation that is needed at the time if we are able to,” said Harlingen Police Sgt. Tonya Sandoval, sergeant in charge of the school resource officer program.

“If there are other students involved there on campus, we would talk to them,” she said. “If there is a suspect, we would do what we would normally do in any criminal investigation. We try to get as much information as possible while we are on campus, and we try to get at least a list of anybody who can possible be a witness, a victim or a suspect.”

Victims of cyberbullying should take screenshots of the harassment taking place on their digital devices.

“Sometimes blocking the person is not always the best tool if it hasn’t been reported because we’re not always able to gather the information,” she said. “They should always document it, even if it’s just them keeping a tally, like a notepad, where they write everything down so that when we go back they’re able to provide us with the dates and the times. Then we can get the subpoenas or search warrants and send them to the social media platform. We can get all of that information documented and be able to identify who it is that is doing it.”

Parents should closely monitor their children’s online activity.

Robina Salgado never lets her daughter, 13-year-old Ave, to take her phone to bed at night.

“She doesn’t keep it in her room,” Salgado said. “I look through her text messages. I look through her social media accounts. I look at what she’s watching. I know that’s not 100 percent, but you just pay attention to what they’re doing on their phone, how connected to their phone they are.”