Schoolyard bullying has grown up since its elementary days of pushing and shoving. In college, the Internet is the playground where words hurt more than a skinned knee.

This new kind of bullying is called cyberbullying, and it’s showing up on college campuses across the country through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and more recently, gossip sites like Juicy Campus and College ACB. Members of these sites push, shove and smack fellow students electronically, and unlike elementary school, when the bully could be sent to timeout, these bullies are much more difficult to catch and punish.

Issues with cyberbullying have recently been brought to light after Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi’s suicide last month. According to ABC News, this transpired after his roommate and a friend filmed him during a sexual encounter and posted it on the Internet.

While no Creighton student has experienced the same fate as Clementi, cyberbullying is still a major issue. Students can say whatever they want to someone through the Internet, especially if it is anonymous.

Creighton counselor Kitty Bourgham said it is much easier to say something negative online rather than to a person’s face because the computer separates the two people.

“If you were talking to someone about your opinion to them and they started to cry, you would have a different reaction. With cyberbullying, you don’t really see their response at all,” she said.

Facebook and Twitter have been past contributors to online bullying, but recent bullying has been centered on the website Anonymous Confession Board.

Two students at Wesleyan University created College ACB after another gossip site, Juicy Campus, was shut down in 2009. It is meant to be a place for students to talk about all things college, but it has turned into a place where students can spread defaming gossip about their peers.

“It’s pretty much a form of harassment and victimization of students,” said Allison Taylor, the assistant dean of students. “People are posting things that they would never say to someone in person.”

Some of the threads on Creighton’s ACB page include “Most Gigantic Stoner,” “Hottest Girl/Guy In Each Frat/Sorority” and “Hottest Teacher on Campus.”

While many students around the country and at Creighton are lashing out against College ACB, the site still gets more than 1.5 million visits per month according to Quantcast, a group that analyzes web traffic.

Since Creighton students started posting on the site this summer, more students have been coming forward and asking administrators what they can do to end the online bullying.

Arts & Sciences junior Gavin Guldenpfennig is just one student who was recently mentioned on the site. He had never been on the site until a friend told him that his name had been brought up.

“When I first read the post about me I laughed a bit to myself because whoever wrote the post obviously didn’t know anything about me,” he said.

While Guldenpfennig didn’t take the negative comment to heart, many students have been angered by comments online.

After hearing students’ grievances about College ACB, Taylor is addressing the issue head-on.

“It’s something that Student Services is taking very seriously because we have a lot of students who are very hurt by this website,” she said.

In order to bring the issue to light, Taylor is working with a kind of task force that addresses the issue of cyberbullying – whether it is through gossip sites like College ACB or social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Other organizations on campus are also working to get rid of the negativity on the site. On Oct. 1, the Committee for Student Life Policy voted to block College ACB on Creighton’s campus.

Business sophomore Brett Coburn was one of the students in favor of blocking the site.

“I voted to protect the innocent person who may be mentioned on that site from seeing something that would hurt them,” he said.

Even though the site cannot be accessed on Creighton’s server, new posts are still showing up every day, including a thread that bashes Creighton’s decision to block the site.

At a meeting that addressed cyberbullying on Oct. 14, students, administrators and faculty members discussed what’s next regarding the site. Taylor led the discussion and posed questions such as, “Was Creighton right in blocking College ACB?” and “How do we move forward as a community?” Those who attended the meeting overwhelmingly agreed that the site has showcased the negative side of Creighton students.

“It has shown a lot of hatred that we have on this campus,” Arts & Sciences senior Eric Svingen said at the meeting.

Arts & Sciences junior Doug McAcy agreed and believes that students should remember what Creighton stands for.

“When you are here, you are supposed to be men and women for and with others and supposed to follow Cura Personalis,” he said.

Svingen said he also believes that Creighton’s decision to block the site isn’t the only way to fight cyberbullying.

“I think that we can block this website, but I think that it’s also important for Creighton to lead in a positive way,” he said.

Along with Taylor’s efforts to get students talking about cyberbullying on campus, the Greek community is encouraging students to steer clear of the site as well. With many threads bashing certain fraternities and sororities, individuals within the Greek community seem to be frequent contributors to the site.

Interfraternity Council president and Arts & Sciences senior Michael Thomson views the site as negative for both the Greek community and Creighton as a whole.

“With websites that allow for slander in this manner, personal integrity is forgotten,” he said. “The Interfraternity Council is looking to work with other organizations and administrators to help educate individuals about the dangers of Internet abuse.”

Panhellenic Council president and Arts & Sciences senior Emily Thibault agrees with Thomson and is working with sorority presidents to end Greek participation on the College ACB site. However, one problem that both the Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils are grappling with is whether or not the site deserves attention at all.

“A big issue is do we keep it quiet or do we address it head on,” Thibault said. “I think it needs to be shouted out loud and clear because if it helps one individual who is hurting, it’s totally worth it to draw attention to it.”

With the help of administrators, leaders within the Greek community and student groups around campus, Taylor says that abolishing cyberbullying still comes down to the students.

“Many students see the issue as something that is not theirs to deal with, but students are the ones who need to be proactive,” she said.

Some students are realizing this and are trying to turn the site into something positive. Threads that encourage positive discussion like, “Who is the Kindest Person on Campus?” and “Favorite Jesuit Value” have been showing up online.

“It’s refreshing to see that students are trying to address the issue proactively,” Taylor said of the posts. However, even on these threads, some students are still negative.

“If people are trying to turn it positively, there are always people who will set a negative tone,” Taylor said. “I think the only way to make it positive is to stop using it as a Creighton community. Written words on the Internet can be very harmful.”

Guldenpfennig encourages students who have been bullied online to think positively.

“If you have haters and people are paying that much attention to you, it must mean you’re doing something right,” he said. “If you keep your head up and live your life the way you want, then you’re going to do just fine.”