bullying and kids who snap

Almost every man I know was bullied in School. How serious the bullying was has more of an effect on some than others. Usually it was physical.

Here are a few statistics to think about...

According to the Virginia Youth Violence Project, published by the Curry School of Education in March of 2001, in the year 97-98 35 children were murdered at school, but 2,717 children were murdered outside of school.

More children died of the flu and pneumonia than are killed at school. Every day dozens of kids are killed in car accidents.

School shootings are a rare phenomenon and cause a startling misconception that youth violence is on the rise, when it is in fact on the decline.

This report also states that "fear clouds an objective, rational analysis of the problem." According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center's report on school violence published in 2002 the rate of nonfatal violent crimes at school declined from 48 per 1,000 students in 1992 to 33 per 1000 in 1999, and the rate of more serious violent crimes such as rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault was 7 out of every 1000 students while at school or going to and from school.

This report also states that "bullying continues to be a serious problem, particularly in middle schools".

According to Bullystoppers.com 80% of adolescents reported being bullied during school, 90% of fourth through eighth graders report being victims of bullying, and most bullying is verbal.

According to atruimsoc.org "recent study, 77% of the students said they had been bullied.
And 14% of those who were bullied said they experienced severe (bad) reactions to the abuse". This study also said "peaks in the sixth through eight grades" and states that "282,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month".

According to Carmen D. McDowell in his analysis on Washington State School District Policies in 2002 "The widespread reporting of bullying in schools by students is in direct contrast to reports of bullying that make it into school safety and crime reports collected at the federal level" due to the fact that "very few bullying incidents in schools are reported as crimes".

Looking at these statistics, I say we support our school in, and enforce our expectations of our schools to have no tolerance for physical bullying. If we do this, then we will be protecting our future and preventing further Columbines!