Should Schools Discipline Cyber Bullies?

By some accounts, every day, around 160,000 do not attend school because they are afraid of bullies. Those who are afraid and attend anyway are distracted and can't pay attention. Clearly, school administrators need to do everything possible to quell bullying and provide a safe environment for all students.

More and more, however, the type of bullying these students encounter is through social media or other cyber media rather than physical confrontations, making it impossible for victims to simply avoid the perpetrator via school intervention. School administrators are in a tough position. What if all the activity takes place outside of school hours? Where does school authority end? How can school administrators have the resources to monitor students' social media, and do so without invading privacy? By the time someone reports the abuse, the damage is often already done. It is easy to argue that schools monitoring what students do outside of school hours is an obvious overreach of power.

The only easy answer is that schools can offer educational programs and teach students smart social media use. This is, of course, only part of the equation, and students set on bullying other students often need a deterrent or discipline to quit the behavior.

I don't envy school administrators in sorting out this thorny problem. I suggest this topic for a discussion or debate in the classroom. When I used it with my class recently, the opinions and ideas were eye-opening. There was so much fodder for debate, the students couldn't wait to get writing!

Out with the Comma? Joining Independent Clauses

It's seemingly one of the simple punctuation rules: When you join two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction (aka FANBOYS), you need to separate them with a comma. Here is an example. The independent clauses are in blue. 

English has many grammar and punctuation rules, but there are many exceptions to those rules. 

This is what I've always taught in my classes, no exceptions. Now, however, I can't ignore the exception to this rule because it's becoming more common in publications, and my students notice. 

If the two independent clauses are short, closely related, and if the comma is omitted, there is no misunderstanding. For example: 

He completed the assignment but it was late.

It's not new; it's in the Chicago Manual of Style and the MLA Style Guide, among others, but it's been largely ignored and doesn't come up in most shorter official grammar guides.  

The trend is definitely toward minimal punctuation, so I'm getting on board teaching the exception, but only so my students will understand when they see it in print. I will, however,  require my students to continue to use the comma in their formal writing assignments so I'm sure they understand the rule, and it's not a purposeful omission. I explain that you can't go wrong with the comma. My students know my mantra: Learn the rules (and demonstrate your understanding) before you break them.