Character Counts! organizers at Juniata Valley Elementary School, in Alexandria, Pennsylvania, have launched a unique campaign to improve the character of their students. Their theme is “Good Character Has No Off-Season.”

Some of your students probably have one. Perhaps even you have one. But what do you do with it, and how can you use it well?

We’re talking about MySpace.com accounts.

Last August, the number of account holders tipped the 100 million mark, and its chief rival, Facebook.com, has more than 58 million active users. Unfortunately, the massive popularity and proliferation of such social networking sites, which are open to all, have created a deluge of problems from bad (one third of teens in America have been targeted by cyber bullies according to a survey by the Pew Internet American Life Project) to worse (sexual predators use the sites to approach and kidnap youngsters) to unthinkable (disturbing comments on a members’ sites have led some kids to
commit suicide).

The National School Boards Association encourages educators to find ways to take advantage of online social networks because students use them so much.

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In 1999, the Columbine massacre triggered a nationwide debate over “How could such a thing happen, and how can we prevent it from happening again?”

Hinsdale Central High School in Hinsdale, Illinois, serves a suburban residential area of approximately 35,000 people. Enrollment is roughly 2,700 students and faculty numbers just over 200. Shortly after the shootings, the school decided it needed to take action to prevent a similar tragedy. Because warning signs were everywhere:

• Increased incidents of disrespectful behavior between students and teachers
• Heightened confrontations
• Escalated risk-taking behavior
• Rampant profanity
• A sense of “them” and “us” in the community

The stress factors coincided with the results of an FBI summit and a CIA national report on school shootings, which found that:

• Targeted violence at schools is rarely a sudden, impulsive act.
• Others often take part in the scheme or know of it beforehand.
• Most attackers engage in prior behavior that caused others concern or indicated a need for help.
• Many attackers were bullied or persecuted by others prior to the incident.

The knee-jerk reaction by many schools across the country was to institute zero-tolerance policies and beefed-up security (metal detectors, security guards, see-through backpacks, computer-generated student IDs). But a Secret Service study found that such measures were nothing more than false hope and “unlikely to be helpful.” The key, the study concluded, is to pay more attention to student behavior.