Times may change, but bullying continues to impact children’s connections to school.
If anything, new technology is making it tougher to avoid bullying. With smartphones, tablets and laptops, kids can encounter cyberbullying, even when they aren’t at school.
“Now there is this whole other realm of bullying,” said Dr. Sarah Winslow, who works in family and preventative medicine with Adventist Health in Fisher’s Landing.
About 20 percent of Washington students are bullied at school and don’t feel safe there, according to the 2018 Healthy Youth Survey, which is conducted every two years. According to stopbullying.gov, nationwide about 20 percent of students ages 12 to 18 reported being bullied. Thirty percent admitted to bullying others.
Clark County tracks similarly to the state and nation when it comes to bullying.
The HYS defines bullying as “intentional, repeated, negative behavior on the part of an aggressor or aggressors toward a target or targets,” and it “also involves a perceived power imbalance of some kind.”
Statewide, 17 percent of 12th-graders were bullied in 2018, while 19 percent of 10th-graders reported they were bullied. Twenty-seven percent of eighth-graders were bullied and so were 31 percent of sixth-graders.
Reducing cyberbullying
In Clark County, 16 percent of 12th-graders were bullied; 20 percent of 10th-graders; 28 percent of eight-graders; and 30 percent of sixth-graders. Another 20 percent of 10th-graders in Clark County responded they don’t feel safe at school, while 17 percent of 12th-graders said the same. Fifteen percent of Clark County sixth-graders don’t feel safe at school, and neither do 20 percent of eighth-graders.
The HYS also showed less kids feel safe at school now than they did in 2008.
“I see a lot of depression and anxiety,” Winslow said. “Kids are really lonely and sad and scared.”
To reduce cyberbullying, Winslow recommends restricting use of phones or tablets to open areas of the house. She said it can be helpful in keeping children off their devices when they are alone in their room. Fifteen percent of 10th-graders said they were bullied through social media, phones or video games; as did 13 percent of 12th-graders and 17 percent of eighth-graders — sixth-graders didn’t have this question on their survey.
But even though cyberbullying is becoming more prevalent, Winslow said the large majority of bullying still takes place on campus.
Open communication
Winslow said it’s important that parents not only try to protect their children from bullying, but also instill in them that bullying others isn’t OK.
Unexplained injuries, lost or damaged property, changes in eating habits such as skipping meals or binge-eating, difficulty with sleeping, declining grades, disinterest in school or frequent illnesses can be signs that a student is experiencing bullying, Winslow said.
Winslow explained it’s important to keep lines of communication open with your child, and support them if they do report abuse. The same goes for school staff. About three-fourths of Clark County students said via the survey that they knew how to report bullying, and about half of them reported that they had tried to stop bullying.
Winslow said she sometimes refers kids to counseling if they’ve encountered bullying. It’s a way for them to explore their emotions. She said that not only victims, but also bullies, can need help because they might be having issues with self-esteem or other mental health struggles.
“I think it’s really important for kids to learn how to deal with those feelings now so they go into adulthood with healthy coping skills,” she said.
