[This blog post originally appeared on the Community Matters blog. I co-authored it with Dr. Glenn Lipson, a clinical and forensic psychologist based in San Diego, CA.] In a remarkably short time, social media has become the leading method by which teens connect, communicate, and share interests. It is crucially important for families and educators…
A teenager at the heart of a significant sexting scandal at North Penn High School in Landsdale, PA, entered a guilty plea on March 22. Brandon Tyler Berlin, 19, pleaded guilty to a single charge of “transmission of sexually explicit images by a minor,” a misdemeanor. Under the terms of his plea deal, he was…
Eighteen months ago, on September 3, 2014, a young woman in Saugus, MA saw four disturbing videos in her Snapchat app. The videos were sent to her by a high school friend, Timothy Cyckowski, and they depicted two people sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in a wooded area. The young woman could hear Cyckowski laughing…
Senior picture days are a well-established right of passage in American high schools. They are a great opportunity for students to demonstrate school spirit, to capture memories to be laughed over at reunions decades hence, and generally to celebrate the impending transition from childhood to quasi-independent adulthood. The photo at the top of this post,…
It gives me pleasure to announce that Anonymous Alerts, a leader in the mobile reporting sector for school technology, has asked me to join its advisory board. I look forward to assisting this innovative company with its efforts to improve school and student safety. You can read the company’s press release by clicking here. The…
A few years ago, my wife Amy was selected to serve as a Fulbright Scholar, teaching American and art history in Guangzhou, China (you can read about her experiences in her delightful book, Lessons from China.) While we were there, we had a chance to travel to different parts of the country. As a life-long…
The town of Fair Lawn, in northeastern New Jersey, lies just under 5,700 miles from Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel. The two communities have widely-differing histories: the former is a bedroom community created by the New Jersey Legislature just 92 years ago, in 1924, while the latter is one of the oldest cities in…
With the American presidential race in full swing, public opinion polls are once again garnering a huge amount of attention, notwithstanding the fact that they may be fundamentally flawed and actively injurious to our democracy. In fact, the state of polling has deteriorated so much that the polling titan Gallup recently announced that it will…
On Christmas Day, the Independent in England ran an exclusive interview with Bruce Daisley, the so-called “European Twitter Supremo.” The interview has gotten considerably play in the British media, despite the fact that it wasn’t so much an interview as it was a animated press release. Read carefully, the article is merely an opportunity for…
Oklahoma is included in the list of states I’ve visited during my lecturing career, but just barely; in 2012, when I was participating in a professional development conference for teachers and administrators in the Fort Smith, AR school district, I took the opportunity to drive across the Arkansas River and have lunch at the 4…
