How Ohio is Fighting Cyber-Bullying

Ohio House Bill 116 was made into law Thursday, February 2, 2012.

The law requires every school in Ohio to put a cyber-bullying policy into place. Goals include teaching students not to engage in cyber-bullying, training teachers on how to handle cyber-bullying and holding parents more accountable for their children’s online actions. Besides the obvious goal that is prevention of cyber-bullying, the law aims to raise awareness of an increasingly wide-spread and dangerous problem threatening today’s youth.

What will come as a result of this law? Will more and more states begin to walk in Ohio’s footsteps? Will any resulting laws be similar or are there inherent flaws in Ohio’s law that must be ironed out? Quite possibly the most interesting part of this law is the responsibility falling into the hands of the parents. This raises many questions. If a child is old enough to use the internet, aren’t they old enough to be held accountable for their own actions and speech? In the same vein, when are children old enough to begin using the internet and how closely should they be monitored? Though bullying is clearly a problem, does this not slightly impede of freedom of speech? Some may think that laws such as this are unnecessary and default to the popular mentality that “kids will be kids”. Still yet, aren’t preventative measures better than any alternative?

Lose the Obesity or Lose Custody

Ohio social workers have removed an 8-year old boy, weighing more than 200 pounds, from his home and his mother’s custody due to his weight. The Department of Children and Family Services in Cuyahoga County said case workers considered his mother’s failure to reduce his weight a form of medical neglect. The department had been trying to work with the mother to lower the boy’s weight for a year prior to seeking custody. The mother’s lawyers argue that this is a mistake and the boy will suffer a greater level of harm by being displaced from his family, friends and school than he is from his weight. The boy is on academic honor roll and participates in school activities. The mother’s lawyers believe that removing the boy from the mother’s custody was too rash, as no threats were immediate.

This case may be controversial though it is not surprising that we are seeing a court case such as this taking place. The obesity “problem”, as you may or may not view it, has been taking center stage in the American media throughout the past few years and is especially concerning when it comes to children. So the main argument tends to be, how much of a problem is American obesity? Is it affecting health to the degree that the media would like us to believe? Is it a problem at all? Are children worse off becoming obese earlier in life than down the road? What are your thoughts on this issue? And if child obesity in American is a problem, what can we do to solve it? 

By the way, though we think obesity if a problem that must be addressed by parents, caregivers and children, we are not sure that removing a child, who is thriving in all other ways, from his family is the right solution to the problem.