Last week I posted several pieces about this scourge. While I detailed and lamented the pain and death bullying causes, I offered only two ongoing reasons for hope, the Trevor Project and the new New Jersey anti-bullying statute in its initial implementation and a powerful potential model for states around the nation. I noted that while 47 of 50 states have anti-bullying laws, most are relatively weak compared to New Jersey's robust effort.

      I want here to share with you more specific resources.  

     First, some numbers from GLSEN's (Gay/Lesbian/Straight Education Network) National School Survey of '07. (The numbers are almost certainly at least as daunting now.)

• nearly 9 in 10 (86.2%) LGBT students reported being bullied

• well more than half (60.8%) reported they felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation

• 32.7% of LGBT students missed a day of school because of feeling unsafe, compared to only 4.5% of a national sample of secondary school students. This is a striking pair of numbers.

• The reported grade point average of students who were more frequently harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender expression was almost half a grade lower than for students who were less often harassed (2.8 versus 2.4).

•  Nearly a third (31.1%) of the students who did report an incident said that school staff did little/nothing in response.

 (That last number seems accurate in my experience as a teacher and public/private school administrator because if the number of reports were, in fact, inflated, they'd likely be inflated to a far higher percentage.)

GLSEN’s LGBT Educator Training Program for Secondary Schools in NYC

65% said the training had caused them to do something differently in their educational practices.

Trevor Project
www.thetrevorproject.org

• LGBTQ youth are up to four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers (Massachusetts 2006 Youth Risk Behavior Survey).

• Suicide is one of the top three causes of death among young people ages 15 through 24, LGBT or not. (2006 National Adolescent Health Information).

“The 411 of Bullying” (The George Washington University, Sept. 2004)
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/grants/226235.pdf

• Of children in sixth through tenth grade, more than 3.2 million—nearly one in six—are victims of bullying each year, while 3.7 million bully other children (Fox, et al, 2003).

• Research shows that half or more of all bullying can be prevented (Fox, et al, 2003).

• Compared to their peers, kids who are bullied are five times more likely to be depressed. Bullied boys are four times more likely to be suicidal; bullied girls are eight times more likely to be suicidal (Bullying Prevention is Crime Prevention, 2003).

Bullying In Schools

Community-Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/RIC/Publications/e07063414-guide.pdf

• In two-thirds of recent school shootings (for which the shooter was still alive to report), the attackers had previously been bullied. “In those cases, the experience of bullying appeared to play a major role in motivating the attacker.”

• A recent study of a nationally representative sample of students found higher levels of bullying in America than in some other countries.

Thirteen percent of sixth- through tenth-grade students bully, 10 percent reported being victims, and an additional six percent are victim-bullies.

This study excluded elementary-age students (who often experience high levels of bullying) and did not limit bullying to school grounds.

Several smaller studies from different parts of the country confirm high levels of bullying behaviors, with 10 to 29 percent of students reported to be either bullies or victims.

• In a survey of American middle and high school students, “66 percent of victims of bullying believed school professionals responded poorly to the bullying problems that they observed.”

• Studies suggest only between 10 and 20 percent of non-involved students provide any real help when another student is victimized.

National Statistics for Bullying (2007)

• According to 2009 data from the National Center for Education Statistics, 42.9% of 6^th graders were bullied during the 2007 school year.

Facts About Bullying from Bully Free Program
http://bullyfree.com/free-resources/facts-about-bullying

• Thirty percent of all child suicides can be directly related to bullying (Hawker & Boulton, 2000).
• It may raise suicide risk in bystanders who are considering suicide for other reasons.