Reply to Lisa Creach's post: Lisa I do agree that we must investigate the complaint, but what do we do with the information other than giving a copy/statement to the department of Education. Then what?
Since we are responsible for investigating the issue. My concern would be that the person envolved my take revenge on that person. (accuser). Even to the point of physical harm or death. there's a lot of reports on retalilation especially to women that goes unreported, how can we protect them after the investigating?
Reply to Robin Wiebe's post: I agree. In an online environment, it would be difficult to impossible to know what's happening behind the scenes unless someone reports it. Students could be sending e-mails of a sexual nature to other students or be "stalking" them. I don't think I could identify something like this in my class discussions since they are specific to the topics of the class.
One of the offenses that I believe could be more prevalent in the on-line environment might be "stalking". Unless a student reports this, it would be hard to identify but I am watchful in the class discussions.
A school is obligated to investigate an act of cyberstalking, if reported, even if it did not occur on campus.
Although it doesn't matter whether the offense has been reported to the police, it should be encouraged. It also needs to be investigated whether it occured on campus or not.
Whether or not an offense has been reported to the police, the situation must be investigated if it occured on campus or off campus when it involves student trips, off campus residences, etc. These are two seperate filings. A student does not have to report an offense to the police, but should be encouraged to report for police investigation.
