Hannah with Special Agent Adrienne King and Lester Middle School’s video production teacher, Antiwon Tucker. (Steph Pawelski)
Students in military families often move and rely on social media to stay in contact with friends. However, electronic communication may risk cyberbullying. Cyber safety is routinely discussed in school, and an eighth-grader student’s project about cyber safety awareness earned her a Girl Scout Silver Award.
Lester Middle School student Hannah Pawelski returned to Okinawa after earning the Bronze Award with Elk Grove Troop 2700 in Sacramento, Calif. Pawelski began working on her Silver Award with her troop for over a year before returning to Okinawa in 2022.
“I made a lot of great friends while living in California. Even though we still communicate through our iPhones, we often played games together where strangers can chat with us,” said Pawelski. “I received a message from someone I didn’t know, and it scared me.”
Pawelski’s project about cyber safety was inspired by the challenges of maintaining long-distance friendships for military children and the inherent dangers associated with social media.
Pawelski recalled a workshop hosted by her Camp Courtney Brownie troop in collaboration with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) on Camp Foster in 2018.
“My troop went to the NCIS building and learned about agents’ jobs, toured their building, and learned about cyber safety,” she added.
Pawelski reached out to NCIS in January 2023 to work on a cyber safety project. Special Agent Adrienne King, assigned to the NCIS Cyber Operations Field Office in Okinawa, was excited to support it.
“I was happy to team up with Hannah in sharing important safety information to protect students online. It’s a privilege to support future female leaders, particularly in the technology realm. I was impressed with Hannah’s dedication to having a positive impact in her community,” King said.
Pawelski recreated her own version of an interview between SA King and Mr. Fredo Ontiveros, then-DoDEA principal at Naples Middle High School (NMHS) in Naples, Italy, about cyber bullying, and geared it towards fellow middle schoolers.
Pawelski’s interview project was aired during LMS’ morning announcement on Jan. 2.
“My friends and teachers were excited to see me on the screen,” said Pawelski, “they told me I did a good job.”
With the help of King and Antiwon Tucker, the LMS video production teacher, the interview project covered topics including insight on cyberbullying offenders and the effect on victims. Victims may have an increased risk of drug and alcohol abuse, depression, and academic performance.
“Bullying is unwanted, aggressive, and repeated behavior done to someone by someone else,” King said in an interview. “Parents may be more familiar of the traditional sense of bullying, the physical encounters – shoving, hitting, punching, and kicking. Others may think bullying is verbal such as name calling, gossiping, and the excluding and ignoring of others.”
King added that although students may not want to go to their parents because they are using accounts they don’t know about, it is important to tell a trusted adult. There are many adults at Lester Middle School including principals, teachers and counselors.
Pawelski said she felt the success of her project was attributed to the help she received from Megan Cominski; a counselor at the school, Dr. Karla Lloyd, the school psychologist; Principal Will Penner and educational technologist Benjamin Ayers.
“I interviewed a lot of people at school and learned new information about cyber bullying. SA King helped me organize this information and put it into an interview format. I was nervous about having the whole school see me, but practicing the interview helped me speak clearly and confidently. I am proud of myself and what I have achieved,” Pawelski said.
(Steph Pawelski)
