Kyrene del Milenio Elementary School’s multi-purpose room was filled with clapping, cheering and excited students Wednesday morning as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters introduced a new anti-bullying program.

I was probably about 11 years old when I had my first experience with Internet safety.

The bullying epidemic continues, even as a multi-pronged crackdown by states and educators gathers steam. For nine months, I dealt first-hand with the bullying issue almost every school day. The problem most assuredly is out there, and across the nation steps are being taken to focus on it.

Once again, the Law of Unintended Consequences makes an unintended appearance in education.

John Baba’s 14-year-old son was assaulted in his second week of high school by a student who was on probation.

A state lawmaker is pushing for a law requiring school employees to report and document bullying.

I normally like to inject some humor into this column but, occasionally, there are topics that need to be discussed that are very serious. Such is the case with Internet predators, cyber-bullying and other commonplace occurrences on social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace.

Q: I need to be able to monitor my child's text messages. Do you know any sites (pay or free) that would enable me to do that? - Mike

I was reminiscing the other day about my high school days and how things have changed since those glorious times. We didn’t have computers, e-mail, only the seniors had cars (and not very many of them), no cell phones, no iPods or iPhones, no MTV and no social networking. That’s right! No Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Plaxo, Photobucket, Pandora or any of the other social networking websites.

As a Chandler resident, I know we have come a long way during the past two decades lowering the drug abuse that was previously getting out of control.

The East Valley Tribune was named Arizona's Newspaper of the Year among large  publications in the 2009 Better Newspapers contest sponsored jointly by the Arizona Newspapers Association and the Arizona Associated Press Managing Editors.

LOS ANGELES -The grieving mother of a Missouri girl told a jury Wednesday how her daughter hanged herself with a belt after receiving cruel messages on her MySpace account, some of which were from a boy whose identity was later revealed to have been invented by a neighbor.

ALBANY, N.Y. - MySpace has reached an agreement with more than 45 states to change to help prevent sexual predators and others from misusing it, state officials said Monday.

Q. How can I tell if my child is being subjected to “cyber bullying”? — Laura

They can be anybody: Bullies aren’t just the mean dudes in the school yard who beat people up — a lot of times, they’re people you think of as friends.