Cyberbullying is a problem not just for students, but school workers as well (see my post on the R.S. v. Minnewaska Area School District No. 2149 case).  To address that problem, North Carolina recently passed a law banning students from bullying school workers online.  An expansion of North Carolina’s existing anti-bullying law, the 2012 School Violence Prevention Act is the first in the nation to make cyberbullying of school workers a crime.  The 2012 law criminally penalizes public school students who use a computer or computer network with “intent to intimidate or torment a school employee” by:

• building a fake profile or web site
• posting or encouraging others to post on the Internet private, personal, or sexual information about a school employee
• posting a real or doctored image of a school employee on the Internet
• tampering with a school employee’s online network, data, or accounts
• using a computer system for repeated, continuing, or sustained electronic communications (including email) to a school employee

The new law also prohibits students from signing up school workers to pornographic websites or spam mailing lists, or making any statement, whether true or false, intending to provoke another person to stalk or harass a school worker.  The law went into effect on December 1.

The ACLU of North Carolina has criticized the law as overbroad, and announced plans to file a lawsuit challenging it.