Bully Proof Your Children

Bullying is the intentional infliction of physical or emotional pain by a peer. There is also a mismatch of some sort. The bully is either older, bigger, stronger, more socially secure, more confident, or holds some other type of advantage.

Over the years, bullying has become more aggressive and is starting at a younger age. Physical bullying begins in early elementary school, peaks in middle school, and declines in high school. Verbal bullying stays quite constant regardless of age.

The statistics surrounding bullying are disturbing:

• Professionals estimate that over 160,000 children skip school each day to avoid being bullied.
  
  
• Over 3.2 million students are bullied each academic year.
  
• Almost 1/5th of students report being bullied two or more times each month.
  
  
• 25% of surveyed teachers don’t believe there’s anything wrong with bullying.

• Two thirds of students believe that schools do little to dissuade or intervene when bullying is reported.
  
  
• 10% of students drop out of school due to bullying.

Learn more about bullying and what you can do to help your child, no matter which side of the story they’re on.