Cyberbullying is the use of electronic devices to harass, threaten, embarrass or target another person.

According to a recent study, more than half of all 14 to 24-year- olds have experienced bullying online.  The National Child Traumatic Stress Network says school dropout rates and absences among victims of bullying are much higher than among other students. Researchers say it also decreases classroom quality.

Kathy Jordan, Program Specialist for Safe and Drug free Schools in the Winston-Salem Forsyth County District says the impacts of cyber bullying can be devastating.

“It can get out of hand so quickly. Cyberbullying can occur anytime, anyplace, anywhere, 24/7. It can be relentless and brutal for students who are experiencing it,” says Jordan.

Jordan says younger students often report cyber bullying incidents more often than high school students. She says that’s because high school students may be too embarrassed to tell anyone or afraid their parents will take away their online communication access.

Jordan says despite the growing number of incidents,some researchers believe the perception of cyber bullying may be larger than the reality.

“What we have asked in our district is have you ever been cyber bullied? It’s less than 12 percent of students reporting in fifth, eighth and 12th grades. When asked that question for the academic year, it’s even less than that, less than 7 percent,” says Jordan.

Each year, School Districts across North Carolina are required to report several violent and non-violent crimes to the Department of Public Instruction. But they are not required to report cyber bullying incidents.

Facebook and texting are the norm for students at Reagan High School in Pfafftown.  Joel Cordray, Director of Student Services at Reagan says he’s seeing a new trend evolving from the online craze.

“The students are coming to us saying I’m concerned about my friend they posted this and it might not be a bullying issue, but it may be an issue of I think my friend may be depressed and need some help," says Cordray.

Cordray added, "It’s a trend that is positive in a sense that students are proactively communicating with the adults that can help and I think that message is getting out to help your friends out.”

The nature of cyber bullying makes it difficult for school officials, parents and students to deal with, especially since most of the incidents happen outside of school grounds.

In 2009, the NC legislature passed a law making cyberbullying a criminal offense punishable as a misdemeanor. If a victim commits suicide, authorities say the bully can also be charged with related offenses because of what they did to cause the person to commit suicide.

“If a family finds out there is something going on, call us. We have the capability to go into the Internet service providers. We have different ways to track where messages come from and everything else. We can intervene. If a kid is being bullied at school contact their SRO and put a stop to it,” says Scott Cunningham, Winston-Salem Police Chief.

SRO’s or Student Resource Officers are stationed in schools throughout the state. However, students are not the only targets of cyber bullying.  Judy Kidd, President of the Classroom Teachers Association of North Carolina, says teachers are also victims.

“We had some students who would get other students emails and passwords and they were posing as other students emailing teachers and making sexual innuendoes and some students who were posting things on Facebook that were not true, making allegations and they were filing the allegations in order to get something that they wanted,” says Kidd.

The Classroom Teachers Association of North Carolina along with other educators lobbied lawmakers for a statute to protect teachers. Earlier this year, North Carolina became the first state to make it illegal for students to "intimidate or torment" teachers online or build fake profiles or websites to damage employees' reputations. 

“Once charges are launched, they don’t ever seem to go away and if charges are launched in court it is expensive to try to expunge them from a person’s record. Once parents and children know that there is a penalty for making false allegations and that type of behavior maybe it will be a deterrent,” says Kidd.

Many education and law enforcement experts agree that the best defense against cyber bullying is education and awareness. Communication between parents and their children is also essential. Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools began an online reporting system for bullying last year. Jordan says school officials also are testing other methods.

“There is a 1-800 number bumper sticker called ‘see anything say anything’ that is posted on all of the buses and we want kids to have access to be able report things they see as well. We didn't have the capacity to do texting so we hope that the next wave of bumper stickers will allow kids to text,” said Jordan.

October is National Anti-Bullying month. Several Triad schools are planning events to discuss the issue.

In Forsyth County, a community walk and forum will be held Saturday, October 13 at the Lawrence Joel Veteran’s Memorial Arena. 

Cyberbullying is also among the topics panelists will address September 27 at a community forum hosted by WFDD and Forsyth Education Partners.