CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Second District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito wants to bring stakeholders to the table and start a dialogue to deal with cyber bullying. Capito is a mother and grandmother and worries about the prevalence of online behavior among children.
“It’s pretty prevalent because it’s so easy,” Capito said Tuesday on MetroNews Talkline. “The internet is a faceless communication and it doesn’t take the courage it does to bully face to face. The other thing is it’s occurring in much younger children, in middle school and even into the elementary school.”
Capito sat down for a closed door discussion with Kanawha County school officials Tuesday afternoon. The meeting involved administrators form a number of county schools, some students, and a representative of Facebook who recommended protocols for dealing with reports of cyber bullying.
“As a mom and a grandmother I think about technology and I wonder, ‘How do we deal with this issue?'” Capito said.
The Charleston meeting is one of several Capito plans to have across the district. She’s planning future meetings in the eastern panhandle and in Lewis County to get input from school officials there who’ll share their experiences and how they have dealt with the matter in the past.
“I think it’s an issue people are really interested in,” she said. “There’s no set answer here.”