Hot Topics: Bullying: Law and Legislation

Description: Why worry about sexual harassment? -- What is sexual harassment? -- Employer liability -- Policy creation and communication -- Sexual harassment training -- Investigating harassment -- Resolution and corrective action.

"Overview: While women benefit from using new digital and Internet technologies for self-expression, networking, and professional activities, cyber victimization remains an underexplored barrier to their participation. Women often outnumber men in surveys on cyber victimization. Cyber Crime and the Victimization of Women: Laws, Rights and Regulations is a unique and important contribution to the literature on cyber crime. It explores gendered dimensions of cyber crimes like adult bullying, cyber stalking, hacking, defamation, morphed pornographic images, and electronic blackmailing. These and other tactics designed to inflict intimidation, control, and other harms are frequently committed by perpetrators who, for many reasons, are unlikely to be identified or punished. Scholars, researchers, law makers, and ordinary women and their supporters will gain a better understanding of cyber victimization and discover how to improve responses to cyber crimes against women."

A student creates a Web site that contains fake obituaries of fellow students. The school suspends him. The parents then sue and win in court. Incidents of bullying, harassment, and threats in schools are growing, but the line between students rights to expression and the school s rights to protect children and faculty is increasingly blurred. To create effective disciplinary and management polices, educators need to understand the legal ramifications of their actions. Bullying and Harassment: A Legal Guide for Educators provides the practical information that they need to help students while avoiding litigation pitfalls. In language readily understandable to administrators, teachers, and other school personnel, educator and attorney Kathleen Conn examines the various twists and turns of the legal issues, including * The distinction between bullying and teasing; * Civil rights and free speech protection under the U.S. Constitution; * Legal definitions of harassment based on gender, race, religion, and disabilities; * Student threats of violence against schools or classmates; * Internet-enabled forms of bullying and harassment; and * Appropriate guidelines for both short- and long-term responses. Using recent court cases and school events that made major headlines, Conn examines how educators should respond to incidents where the law isn t clear and where different court interpretations seem to apply. With its timely information and analysis, Bullying and Harassment shows how every educator can take a proactive stand to ensure safe schools and communities.