For many adults, mean-spirited bullies and schoolyard taunts are just another item on a long list of angst-ridden and unavoidable teenage footnotes.

But according to lawmakers in Olympia, technology-savvy kids are increasingly using high-tech devices and the Internet to harass, ridicule and intimidate other teenagers while at school — sometimes with heartrending and tragic results.

In an attempt to reign in cyber-bullies, the Senate passed legislation requiring school districts to punish students engaging in schoolyard harassment through the Internet or cell phone text messaging.

The bill's primary sponsor, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, said the impersonal nature of the Internet tends to make cyber-harassers more vicious in their attacks than those engaging in face-to-face confrontation.

"With the Internet, people can more readily involve themselves in aggressive behavior because they don't have to face the person they're harassing," Kohl-Welles said. "The Internet is an extension of life that is so impersonal."

In 2005, a 15-year-old Florida teen committed suicide after a cyber-bully spread rumors over the Internet saying the teen was gay. Similarly, in 2003, a Vermont teen committed suicide after repeated instant message harassment encouraged him to take his life.

Justin Patchin, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and co-operator of the Web site cyberbullying.us, said even though school administrators should not be solely responsible for regulating student behaviors online, more school districts need to develop policies similar to existing harassment policies to deal with the issue of online bullying.

"Nobody wants to take responsibility for cyber-bullying behaviors because it takes place in this neutral space that no one wants to police," he said. "Given the prominent nature that schools hold in adolescent development ... school administrators need to take an interest in those behaviors that are making it difficult — if not impossible — for students to learn."

Britain already has a country-wide cyber-bullying policy in place. Similar cyber-bullying legislation was recently voted down in Arkansas because it would violate students' First Amendment rights.

But not all school officials support legislative efforts to limit cyber-bullying.

Steve Terreri, an English teacher at Sehome High School in Bellingham, said while cyber-bullying laws may serve a specific need, they are an attempt to censor the Internet.

"It's almost absurd in how seriously people are taking it," he said. "This sort of big-parent mindset is that we need to protect the children, but frankly I think that's a big masquerade for a lot of nervous people that want to control the sort of freedom that is represented in the West."

The bill was passed on to the House Education Committee. The committee chair, Rep. Dave Quall, D-Mount Vernon, said the bill will likely be approved for debate in the House soon.

Reach reporter Brian Slodysko at news@thedaily.washington.edu.