(Leonna Heuring, Staff)
"Every school district is facing bullying and cyberbullying issues at all grade levels," said Lesli Marcum, East Prairie R-2 director of special education. "Social media is so big. With our students, we wanted to be proactive rather than reactive."
On Friday the school district kicked off its anti-bullying campaign with a visit from Tina Meier of suburban St. Louis. Meier's 13-year-old daughter, Megan, hanged herself in 2006 after falling victim to an Internet hoax carried out, in part, by an adult neighbor who posed as a boy.
"When you get behind the computer, you may think (what you're writing is) a joke, but it's not. It can hurt people's feelings," Meier told a group of Martin Elementary fourth and fifth graders.
The neighbor, a woman, was later convicted of a federal misdemeanor in a landmark cyberbullying trial.
Meier, who spoke to students in fourth through 12th grades and parents/community members in different sessions throughout the day, addressed the different forms of bullying, the definition of cyberbullying, bystanders, consequences of cyberbullying others and ways to protect one's self.
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