Students Can Combat Bullying

Bullying continues to be a concern in schools.

Students can be proactive partners in stopping bullying at school and after hours.

Students are bullied every day. Bullying can happen anywhere, but it is prevalent in school environments. Bullying is often under- reported because children and young adults may be scared of the consequences of outing their bullies.

In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Education released the first federal definition of bullying. The definition encompassed three elements: 1. Unwanted aggressive behavior; 2. Observed or perceived power imbalance; and 3. Repetition or high likelihood of repetition of bullying behaviors.

DoSomething.org says around 20 percent of students between the ages of 12 and 18 have been bullied during the school year, and more than 150,000 teens have skipped school because of bullying.

The Pew Research Center reports that 35 percent of U.S. parents with children younger than 18 say they are extremely or very worried that their children might be bullied at some point. Those fears may be warranted, as the Monique Burr Foundation for Children reports a child is bullied on a playground every seven minutes and between 50 and 77 percent of students report having been bullied.

Bullying can happen to just about anyone in any school in any town in the country. It is important to realize that bullying can occur in person, online and even through devices. Rumor-spreading and verbal insults are forms of bullying. Students do not always report behaviors that are indicative of bullying, so bullying instances may be greater than data suggests. The Monique Burr Foundation for Children says 13 million students will be bullied in the United States this year. Around 160,000 students miss school daily for fear of being bullied. The U.S. Department of Justice says one in four children are bullied. Bullying also is a problem in Canada. According to the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, the majority of Canadian youth between the ages of 12 and 17 (71 percent) reported experiencing at least one form of bullying in the 12-month period prior to the survey. Eighty-nine percent of Canadian teachers see cyberbullying as a top concern, and 42 percent of bullied youths face it monthly. Parents, educators and students need to be aware of bullying and treat it with the concern it deserves.