"A Boston middle schooler taunted daily with verbal and physical threats prompted a health-care provider to pick up the phone and report the abuse to the Hub’s new anti-cyberbullying hotline, one of several calls the line received this week, just days after being put into service.
“The caller wanted to make sure that the authorities were aware that there was a bullying issue at this school,” said Steven Belec, director of the hotline service, which, after being launched Tuesday - during school vacation week - already has received seven calls.
Belec said he contacted education and police officials to warn them of the problem after the Thursday call. “We want to ensure that there is some level of systemic surveillance,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol R. Johnson met yesterday with 15 “cyber mentors” - volunteers who teach other students about online privacy and the hazards of the Internet - to brainstorm ways to spread the word on the hotline and the city’s new campaign to combat cyberbullying."
“The caller wanted to make sure that the authorities were aware that there was a bullying issue at this school,” said Steven Belec, director of the hotline service, which, after being launched Tuesday - during school vacation week - already has received seven calls.
Belec said he contacted education and police officials to warn them of the problem after the Thursday call. “We want to ensure that there is some level of systemic surveillance,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol R. Johnson met yesterday with 15 “cyber mentors” - volunteers who teach other students about online privacy and the hazards of the Internet - to brainstorm ways to spread the word on the hotline and the city’s new campaign to combat cyberbullying."