Cyber Rescue

Script from Interview with a victim

Tell me a little about your experience with cyber bullying.

It was on Instagram. The girls in my class made a fake account with a screen-name and wouldn’t tell me who they were; they just kept talking to me without ever identifying themselves.

Can you tell me about what was said?

This all happened in high school. These girls in my class found out that I liked this boy who was also in our class. It turns out; one of them also liked this boy, too. She was the type of girl who always got her way. When she found out that I liked him, she started talking to me more on this screen-name and threatening me and stuff. She would say things like “If I catch you talking to him again, you won’t see the 10th grade.” And “you can say goodbye to soccer if you keep talking to him.” I asked how they would take soccer away and they said “we’ll start by breaking your legs”. That went on for a while and then faded out. Even though I stopped talking to the boy and stopped trying to get his attention, they still continued to harass me by pointing out things online after school that had happened that day. My locker was on the bottom and they said something like “yeah, we saw you at your locker today. Get used to being that low because you’re gonna be on the ground next time we see you”. When they kept that up I started to get really upset and I started to miss school because of it. I missed two days in a row because I was too upset to go. I didn’t want to be made fun of anymore. After a while, they made up multiple screen names, and a bunch of their friends started DMing me and pointing out my flaws and saying other mean things like “you’re ugly”, “you’re never going to have any friends”. It then reached a point where they started to say they were going to come to my house and hurt me and stuff and type in my address. Then, I got really scared and I told my sister and my sister told them off and it stopped there.

Did it cause any insecurities?

Oh my goodness, yeah. I couldn’t walk down the hallways confidently anymore because I had no idea who was saying this stuff. It could have been anybody. They kept themselves anonymous.

What did you do when you found out who it was?

Nothing. I was too down on myself to even have the courage to confront them. The only other person who knew was my sister and I didn’t ever reveal their identities to her.

So you didn’t get any teachers or administration involved?

No way, I was too embarrassed.

Do you think your teachers could have helped at all?

Honestly, at that age, no. I feel like all they would have done is sat us down and talked to us. But I think I would have gotten made fun of even more for being a tattle tale.

How much do you think that your teachers, parents, peers would help you if they've had enough knowledge about cyberbullying?

Maybe a lot. Because I don't think they've had enough knowledge about cyberbullying, and they thought it wasn't a big deal at all. My dad even told me that they were just making fun of me, and they would stop when they got bored, which wasn't true.