Blog Blocker : The Blog

Austin Dunlap and Zach Adair from Maitland Florida were arrested yesterday for threatening two students via MySpace.

The two kids, who attended Orangewood Christian School, threatened beatings, murder, and the rape of one of the victims’ sisters.

Hopefully they’ll be given more than a Juvenile detention center slap on the wrist, but I doubt it…

(source article)

13 year old boy Casey Knibbs committed suicide after being savagely bullied online by his “peers”. The cruelty of teenagers in middle school never ceases to amaze me.

From the article, one of the teens involved allegedly threatened: “If you don’t kill yourself, we will do it for you.”

I was able to locate a dedication video to him, here.

I would like to extend my sincere condolences to his family. They must be having a difficult time now.

Back in my day, a good schoolyard fight could have as many as 25-30 viewers. There was hooting and hollering and those who didn’t get to see it were told about it the next day at break time.

Today, that same fight is being posted on YouTube, and most are getting thousands of viewers. When your schoolyard brawl video is viewed by an audience the size of your average NBA game (bad example? ), there’s a greater incentive to go for that extra face punch when you know the cameras are rolling.

How many of these schoolyard fights are taking place SOLELY for the online fame and glory that comes with it?

A quick YouTube search for school yard fight shows just a small sample of what’s available for viewing online.

Here’s the source article - A schoolyard fight involving 20 kids at Cumberland High School in Syndey, Australia. Here’s news coverage of the video.

With the rise in popularity of social networking websites, students are finding it more difficult than ever to manage their time.  Parents should keep an eye on how long their teenage children are spending on social networking websites.  College students should know better.

The majority of the students said their online activities were not a distraction. However, when asked what their online activities did distract them from, 60 percent of the students said they were distracted from homework and 24 percent were distracted from studying.

Check out the full article.