Teen Cyberbullying Investigated: Where Do Your Rights End and Consequences Begin?

This book is a must read for all teens and their parents. It's written by an expert in this field and a former juvenile court judge in AZ. It is an awesome insight to what happens when you do things on the Internet and push that send button. There is no going back once that is done and Judge Jacobs explores court cases of teens and what their consequences were! Should be required reading for teens in every school!

I have some interest in this cyberbullying because I write about education-related issues, but also because I have been trying to gain a better understanding of social networking. Judge Jacob's book explains the ramifications of teen cyberbullying in a very readable format. While Judge Jacobs apparently served on the bench for a long time, he has written a book that is not overly drowned in legalese. With respect to cyberspace, issues of free speech may extend off-campus to social networking tools and Web sites. This book mentions several examples including cases of derogatory and misleading information about teachers and students to threats to pull "another Columbine" to tamer incidents such as comments that would appear on student evaluations of teachers at the college level. The major contention from reading the case examples and the rulings is the level of damage or disruption caused by the activity. In some cases, as you will read, the school district won, and expelled offenders. However, in others, the student won, and school districts were forced to pay the student's legal fees. School districts are aptly warned about improper punishments, too. After reading this book, I read about a cyberbullying case on the editorial page of the Rutgers Daily Targum, the main campusdaily newspaper, where a high school suspended a student who had posted disparaging comments about a teacher--they were on the line of "she's the worst teacher I ever had." The school also reacted by removing the student from honors and advanced placement classes, which seems excessive. In this case the student had her day in court and won. I recommend this book to school officials as well as parents who are concerned about their son's or daughter's use of the Internet. It will also provide sufficient warning to potential cyberbullies.

Judge Jacobs explores the most contemporary issues of our everyday lives; Texting, Sexting, the Internet and Social Networking sites. Compelling yet easy to read, the Judge breaks it down for parents, teens and educators to provide a format for communications. "Think Before You Click". Judge Jacobs examines actual court cases thanks to the brave kids and families who allowed their stories to be told. This is an important subject. Read the book and save a life.

This book is a great resource for schools that are taking an active role in bully prevention. I think all faculty should read it and discuss an action plan to take to prevent bullying of all kinds. This resource along with Bullycide in America would be an excellent kick off to an anti-bully movement. Great Resource! I highly recommend it! Susan Bowman, Ed.S., LPC

Judge Jacobs "gets it"! He explains complex legal cases on a level that teens, parents, and educators can all understand without a law degree! Not only that, the reader comes away with a good feel for why it is important to know what these cases are about, and how they might relate to you personally. He frequently asks the reader, "How does this decision affect you?" and "How would you decide this case?" He explains "The bottom line," and suggests additional "Things to think about." Educators or parents could easily use those sections to turn any chapter into a classroom activity or to start a conversation with their teenagers around the dinner table. That is why Judge Jacobs "gets it": This book is a great tool to provoke dialogue between teens and adults and help bridge the huge "digital divide" between us. As a professional in the cyberbullying field, a big "thank you" to the Judge for this much-needed-tool.