Woman whose son died by suicide after cyberbullying has warning about school-issued devices

By Megan Hickey

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — Latin School of Chicago student Nate Bronstein died by suicide in 2022 at the age of 15, after relentless cyberbullying.

Three years later, Nate’s mom is making good on her promise to protect other kids — teaming up with a network of advocates across the country. Rose Bronstein has been focusing for years on bell-to-bell cellphone bans, but her push now is focused on “school-issued” tablets and other technology — and the false sense of security that some parents might feel with their kids using such devices.

Rose Bronstein founded the group Buckets Over Bullying, and has been moving mountains with her local organization.

“So we actually, in the past two years, have had the success of reaching over 11,000 Chicago area students with the social media safety education,” Bronstein said.

It has only been three years since CBS News Chicago first reported on the Bronstein family’s tragic story. The Bronsteins’ 10th-grader was a super-sharp, funny kid; a pillar in their family of five. He was a new transfer last fall to the Latin School of Chicago, at 59 W. North Blvd. in the Gold Coast.

But he was mercilessly bullied by his classmates to the point that he didn’t want to live to see his future.

“We would have known, and we would have protected him, and he’d still be here today,” said Rose Bronstein.

While bell-to-bell cellphone bans were Bronstein’s focus initially, the focus expanded when she connected with parents like Nicki Reisberg, host of the Scrolling 2 Death podcast — who warned of the dangers of school-issued tablets and computers.

After another parent warned Reisberg about a nude advertisement that popped up on his son’s math app, she spent minutes scrolling through her 8-year-old’s tablet — and came across a video promoting self-harm.

“But to know that within two min, that’s what I’m getting served within an algorithm on a ‘safe’ device given by the school was really hard to process,” said Reisberg.

The seriousness of the dangers these devices posed was clear to Bronstein right away.

“Oh, my gosh!” she said. “This this just like another leg to this problem, and we can’t ignore it.”

Reisberg said there is a false sense of security when a school-issued device is involved.

“I think any parent would say if it’s at school, it must be safe,” she said, “and that’s what really hit me over the head was that that’s not true at all.”

Together, Reisberg and Bronstein uncovered not just harmful content on school tech, but more opportunities for cyberbullying and unwanted interactions — and an increase in distractions.

So they launched the Tech-Safe Learning Coalition aimed at educating parents about the dangers, and what they can do — in an effort to honor victims like Nate — and vowing to do better.

“I just want to inspire parents to have the strength and be brave enough to bring this up, and to know that we have a right to know what our children are accessing at school,” said Reisberg.

The Tech-Safe Learning Coalition has several helpful guides about parental controls or even templates for parents to ask questions about device safety. They are available at the organization’s website.

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