Violating one's civil rights or invading a person's privacy are crimes warranting law enforcement intervention. The pending charges in Massachusetts against the teenagers accused of targeting Phoebe Prince and now in a new case in New Jersey are prime examples. But bad behavior should not be an automatic ticket to an arraignment.

Forty-three states have laws to address various forms of bullying, yet the problem persists. Laws are necessary because they provide the impetus and incentive for people to act. But they cannot change the culture at Rutgers or at Phoebe's South Hadley school.

In the grief and outrage that fuels our emotions, we must not forget about the constitutional freedoms all of us enjoy. Too often a rush to judgment has infringed on those rights. No one, regardless of age, is exempt from the current criminal laws. Passing new laws to criminalize bullying will only lead to kids leaving school with a record instead of a diploma. It is not the solution.

Schools must develop strategies to teach children about cyberbullying and its impact, mechanisms for prevention and response need to be established, and everyone in our schools must be trained. All of this needs to be in place before an incident occurs.

For decades laws have protected adults at work and the culture at American workplaces has gone through a transformation. But it took leaders at every level of American society to shepherd the change. We need those shepherds now.

Cyberbullying is today's "rite of passage" and it needs to stop. We must ensure that those who target others, whether in the hallway or cyberspace, understand the real world consequences of their actions and become allies for changing school culture. A law gives schools the power to do something about a bullying problem, but without commitment from everyone they cannot prevent another tragedy.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.