Blog

As a daughter of a missionary, I always moved around as a kid. Going from school to school and having to make new friends every couple of years was tough. And I had my share for being bullied. The feeling of not having any control, and even worse, feeling like the adults around you aren’t willing to help you, is beyond hopeless.

This video was made by a mother, Sadie, in St. Louis, Missouri, who is a part of  a Midwest social media group with me. She shared this video and the extremely hard circumstances that her 11 year old daughter is facing in school. According to her, school officials have done less than a little to help their daughter continue going to school without the fear of being harassed by other children. You can read her personal post about her daughter and their families personal struggle on her blog, SlapDashMom.com

As parents and adults, school officials, and community members what are we doing to help kids who are being bullied, as well as helping those who are the bullies learn to go about life without hurting others?!

According to BullyingStatistics.org, a website who’s purpose is to help educate the public on bullying issues; such as school bullying, workplace bullies, bullying teachers, adult bullies, and more; “School bullying statistics in the United States show that about one in four kids in the U.S. are bullied on a regular basis.” That’s a pretty staggering amount of our children.

When it comes to verbal bullying, this type of bullying is the most common type with about 77 percent of all students being bullied verbally in some way or another including mental bullying or even verbal abuse. These types of bullying can also include spreading rumors, yelling obscenities or other derogatory terms based on an individual’s race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Out of the 77 percent of those bullied, 14 percent have a severe or bad reaction to the abuse, according to recent school bullying statistics. These numbers make up the students that experience poor self-esteem, depression, anxiety about going to school and even suicidal thoughts (bullycide) as a result of being bullied by their peers. Also as part of this study, about one in five students admitted they are responsible for bullying their peers. Almost half of all students fear harassment or bullying in the bathroom at school, according to these school bullying statistics. As a result of this fear and anxiety of being bullied, many students will make excuses or find ways around going to school. School bullying statistics also reveal that teens ages 12-17 believe they have seen violence increase at their schools. In fact, these numbers also show that most violent altercations between students are more likely to occur on school grounds than on the way to school for many teens.

One of the most unfortunate parts of these school bullying statistics is that in about 85 percent of bullying cases, no intervention or effort is made by a teacher or administration member of the school to stop the bullying from taking place. However, now that more and more schools are taking an active approach to cut down on the number of students that live in fear of being bullied, the numbers will go down.

Have you or your child experienced being bullied? Do you have a child who was the bully? How did you handle the situation? Share your story – we need to openly talk about this and find solutions to help our children.