El Toro Senior Takes a Video Stand Against Cyberbullying

El Toro High School senior Brian LeNoir, 17, admits that he's been guilty of the very thing he's been campaigning against.

"Yeah, I've said some stuff online that I shouldn't have," LeNoir said. "And then after making the video, I started realizing you do have to think twice."

The video he's referring to is that splices together news segments about teen suicide, footage from Facebook and Coldplay's "Fix You" to deliver the message that teens need to lay off saying insensitive things to one another online—or, as the practice has become known, "cyberbullying."

That video, posted on LeNoir's own Facebook page a few weeks ago, gained the attention of classmates, who passed it on to other classmates, who eventually passed it on to members of the Associated Student Body. El Toro Vice Principal Kathryn Scheidler liked what she saw.

On Feb. 3, the video was screened in classrooms around the school as part of the morning broadcast to students. Scheidler said there wasn't any particular incident that spurred the broadcast.

"[Cyberbullying] is happening all over the place, with Facebook and everything being so popular," she said. "We do stuff periodically that's proactive to remind kids about whatever."

LeNoir said the issue is familiar to kids in his generation, who spend a lot of time on Facebook and other social networking sites. Often, what may seem to be good-natured ribbing can rub someone the wrong way, he's found.

"People just call each other names, of course jokingly, but there have been a couple times where someone takes something seriously," LeNoir said. "I just see it at El Toro, but I know it's everywhere. Teens in other states are probably no different than we are here."