Principals from three Charles County schools delivered a presentation to the Charles County Board of Education during Tuesday’s meeting. The presentation focused on four types of bullying and broke down more statistics on it. This was part of National Anti-Bullying Month.
Virginia McGraw, Principal at William B. Wade Elementary School, Sonia Jones, Principal at Matthew Henson Middle School and Evelyn Arnold, Principal at La Plata High School delivered the presentation.
They mentioned that there are four types of bullying: Physical, verbal, social, cyber. Physical bullying is more popular among males and social bullying, mainly done through gossip, is done through females. Cyber-bullying is said to be on the rise. Most bullying occurs inside school grounds, with only eight percent occurring on school buses. Cyber bullying usually takes place from the confines of the bully’s personal computer or personal cell phone.
160,000 students nationwide avoid school each day due to bullying. The victims of bullying tend to show a change in demeanor and depression. In many cases, students who are bullied tend to become bullies themselves. In extreme cases, suicides have been linked to bullying. Only a third of bullying instances end up reported.
Charles County Public Schools does have an anti-bullying policy. When an instance of bullying is reported, investigations begin. Action results in suspension or gets turned over to local law enforcement. In the 2010-2011 school year, the majority of bullying took place in middle school.
Many offenders “lack empathy” and conduct in bullying to impress others. Board of Education Member Michael Lucas said there is no target group for who conducts in bullying. One of the student members said that bullies tend to have a lot of personal problems themselves.
Charles County has a Bullying Prevention Committee.<!–
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