Lantern training · Practice scenarios
Practice scenarios: cyberbullying and digital harm
Six realistic situations for staff training, counselor education classes and team meetings. Each has questions to discuss and a short note on what good practice looks like, based on Lantern’s digital harm checklist.
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- Who it’s for School staff, counseling teams and graduate students
- Time 10 to 15 minutes per scenario
- Use with The staff checklist and your state’s page in Lantern
How to use these scenarios
- Give each small group one scenario. Don’t share the “good practice” notes until after they discuss.
- Ask the group to agree on their first three steps, who they would tell, and anything they would not do.
- Have each group look up your state in Lantern and add one thing the law requires.
- Compare their answers with the notes. Where they differ, talk about why.
The scenarios are made up. Any resemblance to real students is accidental.
Scenario 1. The group chat
Middle school · Mean or harassing messages
A seventh grader stays behind after class and tells you that classmates have made a group chat about her. For two weeks they have posted mocking pictures of her and voted on “who would be the worst to sit with at lunch.” She shows you a few messages on her phone and asks you not to tell anyone because it will “make it worse.”
Discuss
- How do you respond to her request to keep it secret?
- What evidence would help, and how should it be saved?
- Does your state’s bullying law cover a chat that started at home?
What good practice looks like
- Thank her for telling you. Explain kindly that you can’t keep it secret, and who you will tell and why.
- Check that she is safe and has an adult to go to. Watch for signs of distress or self-harm.
- Help her screenshot the messages with names, dates and the chat name. Don’t ask her to delete anything.
- Help her mute or leave the chat and report it in the app, and follow your school’s bullying report steps the same day.
- Professional standards: ASCA’s ethical standards give every student a right to a safe school on digital platforms, and APA’s 2023 advisory calls for limiting teens’ exposure to cyberbullying. NASP and NASN stress helping bystanders, such as classmates in the chat, to speak up.
Scenario 2. “Send money or I’ll post it”
High school · Sextortion · Urgent
A tenth-grade boy asks to see the counselor right away. He is shaking. Last night someone he met on a social app, who seemed to be a girl his age, asked for a photo. He sent one. Now the account says it will send the photo to his followers unless he pays $300 by tonight. He wants to know if he should pay.
Discuss
- What is the first thing you say to him?
- Who must be told today, and in what order?
- What should he do with the account and messages?
What good practice looks like
- Tell him clearly that it is not his fault and he is not in trouble.
- He should not pay and should not send anything more. Paying rarely ends the threats.
- He should keep the messages and not delete the account or chat.
- Report to the FBI (tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI) and the NCMEC CyberTipline (report.cybertip.org) today. Involve an administrator and his parents or caregivers under district policy.
- Never view, save or forward the image. Describe the situation in writing instead.
- Take It Down (takeitdown.ncmec.org) can help stop the image spreading online.
- Professional standards: ASCA’s digital safety statement asks counselors to respond with a team and to tell parents and administrators when a student is at serious and foreseeable risk.
Scenario 3. The fake picture
High school · Fake or AI-made image · Urgent
A teacher hears students laughing about a picture going around. It shows a ninth-grade girl undressed, but her friends say it is fake: someone used an app to put her face on another body. The girl hasn’t come to class today.
Discuss
- Does it matter that the image is fake?
- What should the teacher do with students who have the picture on their phones?
- How do you support the student who is pictured?
What good practice looks like
- Treat it the same as a real private image. The federal TAKE IT DOWN Act (2025) covers fake intimate images of real people.
- Do not ask to see the image, and do not collect it on school devices. Describe what you heard and report it to an administrator at once.
- Report to the NCMEC CyberTipline because she is under 18, and ask platforms to remove it. They must do so within 48 hours of a valid request.
- Reach out to the student and her family. Make clear to her, and to others, that the image is fake.
- Students who made or shared it face discipline under school policy and may face legal consequences.
- Professional standards: NASP notes that some bullying is also discrimination under federal civil rights law. Sexual images used to harass a student may be sex-based harassment, so involve your Title IX coordinator.
Scenario 4. The threat in a story
High school · Threat of violence · Urgent
On a Sunday evening, a parent emails the counselor a screenshot. A student posted on a social app: “Don’t come to school Friday. I mean it.” The post was deleted an hour later. Several students saw it.
Discuss
- What do you do tonight, and what waits until the morning?
- Who is on your threat assessment team?
- Does it matter that the post was made off campus and deleted?
What good practice looks like
- If anyone may be in immediate danger, call 911.
- Contact your administrator now and start the school’s threat assessment process. Don’t wait for Monday.
- Save the screenshot and note who saw the post and when.
- Real threats are not protected speech (Counterman v. Colorado, 2023), and schools can respond to threats made off campus.
- Professional standards: ASCA’s digital safety statement asks counselors to respond to online threats with a multidisciplinary team, such as the school psychologist, an administrator and a school resource officer where there is one.
Scenario 5. The fake teacher account
Middle school · Fake account
Students tell a sixth-grade teacher that there is an account using her name and school photo. It posts jokes about students’ grades and appearance. Several students have started commenting.
Discuss
- Who can report an impersonation account?
- Is this a bullying matter, a staff matter, or both?
- How do you talk with the students who commented?
What good practice looks like
- Screenshot the profile and posts first, before reporting.
- Use the app’s impersonation report. The teacher can file it herself.
- If students made the account, handle it under the school’s bullying and conduct policy. Students targeted in the posts need support too.
- Professional standards: ACA, NBCC and NASW all ask professionals to keep personal and professional social media separate. It is a good moment for staff to check their own privacy settings.
Scenario 6. The address
High school · Private details posted
After a fight at a football game, someone posts a student’s home address and his mother’s phone number with the words “you know what to do.” The student’s family is frightened.
Discuss
- Is the student safe at home tonight?
- What can the platform do?
- What other laws might apply?
What good practice looks like
- Report the post. Most apps ban sharing private information.
- Because the post invites others to act, involve the family and the police about safety at home.
- Help the student tighten privacy settings.
- There is no general federal doxxing law, but this can fall under stalking or harassment laws, and some states have specific laws. Check your state in Lantern.
- Professional standards: SSWAA holds that every child has a right to a safe school. A school social worker can help the family plan for safety at home and connect them with community support.
Sources
- Professional standards: ASCA, ACA, NBCC, NASP, APA, NASN, SSWAA, NASW. See Lantern: What the professions say.
- Lantern’s digital harm checklist. saileekrath.com/…/digital-harm
- FBI tips: tips.fbi.gov · NCMEC CyberTipline: report.cybertip.org · Take It Down: takeitdown.ncmec.org
Work with Dr. Rath
Bring this training to your school
Dr. Sailee Karkhanis Rath leads staff trainings, workshops and talks on cyberbullying, digital harm and school counseling for schools, districts, counselor education programs and conferences. Get in touch to plan a session, invite her to speak, or ask a question about these materials.
About the author
Sailee Karkhanis Rath, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of School Counseling · Brooklyn College, CUNY
Dr. Sailee Karkhanis Rath is an Assistant Professor of School Counseling at Brooklyn College, CUNY, and a Licensed Professional School Counselor. She studies cyberbullying and digital harm and created Lantern.
- Ph.D., University of Iowa
- Licensed Professional School Counselor
- Creator of Lantern