Jamari Terrell Williams Bullying Act
Jamari Terrell Williams Act
Jamari Terrell Williams was a 5th grade student in Montgomery, AL who committed suicide after being bullied online. The Jamari Terrell Williams Student Harassment Act places certain responsibilities on the Board of Education to make sure cyberbullying and bullying will not be tolerated on or off campus or online. It expands the current statute to prevent student against student harassment, intimidation, violence, and threats of violence to students off campus as well. It also specifically includes cyberbullying in the definition of harassment.
Definition & Types of Bullying
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Bullying is any intentional and repeated act of unwanted aggressive or demeaning behavior involving a real or perceived power imbalance that takes place on or off school property, in which one or more people intentionally and repeatedly cause physical or psychological harm to another person. To be considered bullying, the conduct must also place a student in reasonable fear of harm or of damage to property, have the effect of substantially interfering with educational performance or school operation, or create a hostile, intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment.
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An Imbalance of Power: Students who bully use their power, such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity, to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
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Cyber bullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets.
- Posting comments or rumors about someone online that are mean, hurtful, or embarrassing.
- Threatening to hurt someone or telling them to kill themselves.
- Posting a mean or hurtful picture or video.
- Pretending to be someone else online in order to solicit or post personal or false information about someone else.
- Posting mean or hateful names, comments, or content about any race, religion, ethnicity, or other personal characteristics online.
- Creating a mean or hurtful webpage about someone.
- Doxing, an abbreviated form of the word documents, is a form of online harassment used to exact revenge and to threaten and destroy the privacy of individuals by making their personal information public, including addresses, social security, credit card and phone numbers, links to social media accounts, and other private data.
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Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:
- Teasing
- Name-calling
- Inappropriate sexual comments
- Taunting
- Threatening to cause harm
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Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone's reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:
- Leaving someone out on purpose
- Telling other children not to be friends with someone
- Spreading rumors about someone
- Embarrassing someone in public
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Physical bullying involves hurting a person's body or possessions. Physical bullying includes:
- Hitting/kicking/pinching
- Spitting
- Tripping/pushing
- Taking or breaking someone's things