Ever been online one day and suddenly you are just bombarded with instant messages calling you every name in the book? Well this is a form of cyber bullying.

Cyber bullying is the use of e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, pagers, cell phones, or other forms of information technology to deliberately harass, threaten, or intimidate someone, according to Whatis.com.

Most teenagers have gone through some type of cyber bullying, whether it is through Gossip blogs or AOL Instant Messenger. But what causes students to engage in cyber bullying?

Well a couple of students at MLK Law have been either victims of this or have been the predators in causing cyber bullying. Debrena Mena Castillo, a senior at MLK Law, knows the game too well.

A couple months prior she had been very upset at a fellow friend, when she decided to get on AOL Instant Messenger and sent her a couple of nasty messages in which she expressed her feeling.

“ I think it’s not exactly bullying it’s expressing the way you feel.” she said. As a way to “explain to them who they are, whether it be a low life dog or a harlot.”

She explained that by insulting her she felt better. Although the predators feel like it’s justifiable many victims feel like cyber bullying or bullying at all is caused because some students feel it’s people wasting their time.

“ Because they have low self esteem and no life,” said Senior, Trisha Wilkerson.

After having some girl who attends her best friend’s school, harass her best friend because she is gay. Trisha decided to confront this girl on AOL Instant Messenger in hopes of solving the problem.

Instead she was insulted when the girl stated, “You and your faggot friends go to hell cause that’s where you all belong.” In retaliation, Wilkerson stated back “ Excuse me, I’m offended because I am gay also, why do you insult us gay people. How dare you insult me and my friend?”

In an attempt to resolve the problem once more Wilkerson said “ I went to my friends to school confront the girl.” And told her “ You need to grow up.”

Although cyber bullying has been established as a source of harassment many teens feel that it isn’t.

“I do use profanity to bully her, but were all children of God, adolescents,” said Freshman Lisamarie Almonte, who said she wasn’t bullying the person or harassing but just having fun.

Although some people may argue that cyberbullying is just as bad as regular bullying, Freshman Christina Vernon disagrees. She said “ It’s not fighting because you’re just typing.”

“Harassing someone is every time you keep IMing them and saying rude things, talking to them when they don’t want to talk to you,” said Senior, Debrena Castillo.

Agreeing to that statement was Junior Florence Craft, who also admitting to having been the predator in cyber bullying, saying, “It was funny.’”