Students get free laptops

Students at two Rowland Unified schools received free laptops this week, and the excitement was palpable.

 

Fifth-graders at Oswalt Academy try out the new computers.

Pebbles Tsai takes pictures with a photo program, with help from teacher Lisa Rodriguez, right. Grandmother Meilin Tsai looks on.

Fifth- and sixth-graders and their teachers at Oswalt Academy and Ybarra Academy of the Arts and Technology were given the Apple Notebook computers through the Laptop Learning Program, which provides students full-time use of the computers, at home and school, regardless of economic background.

School district officials said many of the students from the Walnut schools do not have computers at home.

Officials said that teachers and parents report that students who participate in these kinds of programs are more involved in learning activities and spend more time on schoolwork.

-- Beth Shuster

Photo credits: Gina Ward

Cyber-bullying common

Many teenagers say they are the victims of online bullying, but few tell their parents or other adults, according to a study by UCLA researchers.

Moreover, teens who are on the brunt end of cyber-bullying are the same ones who are being bullied at school, the study found.

"Bullying on the Internet looks similar to what kids do face-to-face in schools," said lead study author Jaana Juvonen, who chairs UCLA’s developmental psychology program. "The Internet is not functioning as a separate environment but is connected with the social lives of kids in school. ... Especially among heavy users of the Internet, cyber-bullying is a common experience, and the forms of online and in-school bullying are more alike than different."

The research is based on an anonymous survey of 1,454 participants, aged 12 to 17, recruited through a popular teen website in 2005. Nearly three in four teens said they were bullied at least once during a previous 12-month period, while only one in 10 reported the abuse to parents. The findings appear in the September issue of the Journal of School Health.

The most common reason for not telling an adult is that teens believe they need to "learn to deal with it." Many also said they were concerned their parents might restrict their Internet access or that they could get into trouble with their parents.

The most prevalent kinds of bullying online and in school were name-calling or insults, followed by password theft and intimidations such as threats, sending embarrassing pictures, sharing privare information without permission and spreading nasty rumors.

Juvonen said that adults may overestimate the risk of bullying online and downplay the risk in school. Of those who experienced cyber-bullying, 51% said it was done by schoolmates. Schools should do more to address both instances, including teaching students how to cope and respond, Juvonen said.

"Schools need to enforce intolerance of any intimidation among students, regardless of whether it takes place on or beyond the school grounds," she said.

Earlier research by Juvonen and Adrienne Nishina, an assistant professor of human development at UC Davis, found that middle school students who are bullied in school feel depressed and lonely and often have headaches, colds and other physical illnesses as well as psychological problems.

-- Carla Rivera