With all this talk about bullying and how much of a problem it has become, it made me wonder just what the statistics were regarding bullying rates in America. What I found was staggering.
A quick Google search revealed the scope of the problem and, at least in my mind legitimized the use of the term “epidemic” when describing bullying. Here are just a few statistics from a number of sources:
- 71% of students report bullying as a problem in their school
- 1 in 7 K-12 students is either a bully or the victim of a bully
- Daily, an estimated 160,000 students skip school for fear of attack or intimidation
- 1 out of 4 kids will be bullied sometime within their adolescence
- About 35% of kids have been threatened online
Hopefully these numbers help to put in perspective just how serious this problem is. And if you are the victim of a bully, you are not alone.
——
Ed Holpfer
* statistics sourced from BullyingStatistics.org, MakeBeatsNotBeatdowns.org, National Education Association
