HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Because of the pandemic, many kids are learning online, but all that extra time online puts them at risk for online bullying.
One mother, whose daughter goes to Somerset City Arts Conservatory, a public charter school, said one student took bullying to another level by hacking into her daughter’s computer. But the school said an investigation found that no outside hacking took place.
Andrea, who doesn’t want to give her last name to protect her daughter’s privacy, was helping her 9-year-old daughter finish a homework assignment on Google Classroom Tuesday night when she says something went wrong.
“We had spent about half an hour into the homework and completed a full essay. All of a sudden, everything just deleted itself.” She then watched in horror as profanity-laced messages started popping up on the screen.
“It was f—-, f—-, f—-. And we were just shaken up at that moment. They even harassed me, you know, and antagonized me, the mother. They said ‘F— your mom.’ ”
She notified her daughter’s school to report the cyberbullying.
“I think it’s incredible that another child is doing this to her,” she said.
In a statement, the Florida Charter School Alliance said: “The safety and security of students on-campus and online is the school’s top priority. This incident was thoroughly investigated by the principal, IT department, and two officers from the Homestead police department who found no evidence of an outside hacker.”
We asked if her daughter shared her password with anyone.
“No, she did not,” Andrea said.
She said her daughter is scared to use her computer again, which is affecting her academic performance. Andrea said she wants the school to do more.
“I feel they should make the parents aware of everything that’s been going on. I don’t think that that has been done.”
Andrea said she’s considering transferring her daughter to another school if the cyberbullying persists.