1 in 4 Framingham High School Students Have Been Cyberbullied

Cyber bulling has almost doubled in Framingham in the last 6 years according to the latest results of the MetroWest Health Foundation's MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey.

Students in grades 7-12 took the survey in October 2012. The Foundation has done the survey every other year since 2006. 

In 2006, 12 percent of Framingham High students said they had been cyber bullied. In 2012, the number had increased to 24 percent.

That means 1 out of every five students at Framingham High have experienced cyber bulling. With about 2,000 students at Framingham High, that equals to about 500 students.

And cyber bullying is on the rise at the Framingham public middle schools too. In 2006, 16 percent of middle school students reported that had experienced it. In 2012, that number had increased to 21 percent. Which means about 1 in every 5 middle school students have been the victim of cyber bullying.

For parents unfamiliar with the term cyber bullying it means to use technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person.

Sometimes cyberbullying can be easy to spot — for example, if your child shows you a text message, tweet, or response to a status update on Facebook that is harsh, mean, or cruel. Other acts are less obvious, like impersonating a victim online or posting personal information, photos, or videos designed to hurt or embarrass another person, according to kidshealth.org

Cyber bullying can take many forms:

• Sending mean messages or threats to a person's email account or cell phone
• Spreading rumors online or through texts
• Posting hurtful or threatening messages on social networking sites
• Stealing a person's account information to break into their account and send damaging messages
• Pretending to be someone else online to hurt another person
• Taking unflattering pictures of a person and spreading them through cell phones or the Internet
• Sexting, or circulating sexually suggestive pictures or messages about a person

Cyber bullying can be very damaging to adolescents and teens. It can lead to anxiety, depression, and even suicide. Also, once things are circulated on the Internet, they may never disappear, resurfacing at later times to renew the pain of cyber bullying, according to bullystatistics.org.

Monday night, four Framingham High juniors and one senior presented the bullying results to parents as part of a special presentation titled the "Not So Secret Life of the Framingham Teen." 

The five students, including Victoria Mescall, Andre Gonzaga, senior Sabetha Lafontant and juniors Morgan Viall and Ramsey Malieswski, also presented survey results on mental health, alcohol and drug use and sexual behavior. 

Editor's Note: Framingham Patch plans to post reports on those topics later this month. This report is focused on the mental health results of the survey.