Florida county starts anti-bullying campaign in schools. Good for them.

This school year, because of the Jeffrey Johnson Stand Up for All Students Act that Gov. Charlie Crist signed in June, victims and parents will be able to report incidents anonymously online at the district's Web site, www.polk-fl.net. Also, different types of bullying will be identified, including cyberbullying, social exclusion, threatening and intimidating behavior, and spreading rumors and falsehoods. District officials said as part of a stronger anti-bullying policy for K-12 students, they will begin to compile more data on bullying incidents, such as genders of victims, ages and the number of accounts of physical bullying, verbal bullying and cyberbullying.

In 2005, Jeffrey Johnson hanged himself by his book bag strap in his bedroom closet. The Cape Coral teen committed suicide after being bullied for three years. Johnson's classmates used the Internet to torment him, calling him derogatory names, a stalker and a creep, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Another extreme act of bullying occurred this past spring.

In May, a 13-year-old middle school student told a coach that four classmates held him down inside the Walker Middle School locker room in Tampa and raped him with a broom handle and a hockey stick.

"The biggest obstacle in middle and high school is cyberbullying," Woolcock said. "Elementary is more face-to-face." Bill Sone, a school resource officer at Westwood Middle School in Winter Haven, said that about half of the bullying incidents are through text-messaging or e-mail.

"A lot of times what happens off campus spills onto school grounds," Sone said. Sone said that when he identifies cyberbullies, he tells them that they have created a permanent record that could be used against them.

"The potential of illegal activity is usually enough to stop the activity," Sone said.

TAMPA - Four middle school students accused of repeatedly raping a flag-football teammate with a broomstick and hockey stick can remain free on $15,000 bail each, a judge ruled today.

Three of the teens also must wear electronic monitors, and all four must honor a 7 p.m. curfew and have no contact with the victim or witnesses, said Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Wayne S. Timmerman. One of the four was released on bail this evening and was released at about 8:30 p.m.
Raymond A. Price-Murray, 14, Randall John Moye, 14, Diemante Roberts, 15, and Lee Louis Myers, 14, are charged as adults. Each faces four counts of sexual battery, a crime that carries up to 30 years in prison on each count.