Episode 2: The Statistical Standpoint

The speaker discusses the issue of bullying and its impact on students, including the rise of bullyside (suicide as a result of bullying). They highlight statistics on bullying and emphasize the need for proper handling of bullying incidents by schools. The current anti-bullying laws in Mississippi are deemed ineffective, as victims are often dismissed or punished. The speaker proposes changes to the laws, including removing the ability of school districts to create their own policies and implementing fines and penalties for failure to report or address bullying. They also suggest mandatory training for teachers and the inclusion of a safe school hotline in school policies. The aim is to reduce bullying and school shooting incidents. Welcome, everyone. On today's episode of Bullyproof, I'm going to be reading the speech I made to Senator Roger Whitaker's office. The meeting consisted of myself, Katie Roberts, and Kendall Wilcox. I wanted to take a moment to thank these two ladies for not only taking time out of their busy schedules to really listen to my concerns, but for also staying in touch after and providing valuable information and resources. I hope you all enjoy and have a great rest of your day. There are between 15 and 25 reported incidents of bullying on suicide, now being referred to as bullyside each year. This is just the number reported. In many cases, the child is too afraid to speak up, so it is just reported as a regular suicide. About 42% of kids have been bullied online. One in four of those kids were verbally attacked more than once. About 58% of kids reported malicious name-calling, rumors, and slanderous comments made behind their backs to their faces or directed at them online. The American Justice Department of bullyside statistics show that one in four kids will be bullied at some point in adolescence. 46% of males and 26% of females have admitted to being victims of physical altercations, as reported in one study of bullyside statistics by the Bureau of Justice School. Out of all these numbers, more and more of these incidents are ending in cases of bullyside, where the child takes their life because they can't handle the bullying anymore. Y'all, I don't know how y'all feel, but this has got to stop. It's just out of control. And now this leads to the issue of school shootings that have involved bullying. Most attackers were bullied, sometimes persistently. According to a report by the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center, 41 incidents of school violence at K-12 schools between 2008 and 2017 were analyzed. And while that analysis only looked at 35 of 41 attackers' behavioral history, of those 35, 80% were bullied by classmates, with 57% having been bullied for weeks, months, or years. This statistic also shows there is a 49% higher chance that students who are bullied within the previous year will carry a gun on school property, according to a study in 2022 published by the journal Curious. This proves my point that the issue of bullying is not being properly handled by our schools. The current state anti-bullying laws in Mississippi, while they were placed with good intentions, are not helping. I say this because in most cases, coming from experience with my own children and others who have come forward to tell me their stories, when a child reports bullying to school staff, they are told to sit down, don't be a tattletale, or some other dismissive phrase. When bullying escalates to fighting in school, oftentimes the victim is punished. One of our state laws here in Mississippi reads as followed. Prohibit the imposition of disciplinary measures on a student who, after investigation, is found to be a victim of bullying on the basis of that student's reasonable self-defense in response to bullying. Most times, the incident is not properly investigated, leaving the victim in a no-win situation, and when it is reported, it's swept under the rug, which leaves the victim even more vulnerable. I personally find it disturbing that a local school district policy includes this law, yet it is repeatedly broken. Just this past year, Ocean Springs School District had a student who committed bullieside as a result of that law not being upheld. And while I'm not at liberty to speak of the incident at this time, I will try my best to get into that situation on a later date. Another reason I feel so strongly that the current laws need to be changed or amended is because during a recent phone call conversation with Mr. Brian McGarrity with the Mississippi State School Board, it was brought to my attention that individual school districts are allowed to make and follow their own anti-bullying policies. This needs to be discontinued. This state law needs to be followed across the board instead of the districts picking and choosing which of the laws will be included in their policies. In my research on this very topic, I had a parent send me the bullying policy for the current school year at Ocean Springs School District. I found that three of the eight laws were not included in their policy. The omitted laws read as follows. Establish procedure providing notice of an incident of bullying to a parent or guardian of the victim and the parent or guardian of the bully within a reasonable amount of time. Set out the available counseling options for students who are victims of or witness to bullying or those who engage in bullying. Require that discipline for bullying of a student with disabilities comply with the applicable requirements under federal law, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This brings me to an incident that I wanted to bring to light that will show a pattern of incidents not being reported by the school district. In 2014-2015, a teacher and a bus driver were caught on video, on a bus, being abusive to a special needs student. The teacher shoved a rag into the student's mouth and the bus driver sat on the child and told the child to shut up. This bus driver also threatened to take the student to jail and unalive the child if the child didn't shut up. Both were jailed, but the state agency did not immediately know about the incident due to Jackson County School District failing to report. This teacher was previously employed by another school in the same school district and was let go. The reasoning for her termination was not disclosed to the new school, therefore allowing her to gain employment where she ultimately harmed a child. I brought this up to show two very important things. Ocean Springs School District has a habit of failing to report incidents and Jackson County School District as a whole has a habit of failing to report incidents. With all the previous information, I am making a formal proposal that the following changes be made to our existing anti-bullying laws. Remove the ability of the individual school district to create their own policies for bullying, taking away their ability to choose which of the laws they choose to uphold, which in turn allows the state board of education to step in and monitor how these reported incidents are being handled and step in if needed. Failure to report incidents of bullying should be met with a fine for the first incident, a more significant fine for the second incident, and termination and fines with possible jail time for the third incident. Failure of the school or parents to put an end to a student bullying someone should result in fines for the first incident, a more significant fine for the second incident, and termination and fines with possible jail time for the third incident. Disciplining a child who is defending themselves against bullying, especially in cases where a witness comes forward to state that the student was or had been bullied will result in a fine for the first incident, a more significant fine for the second incident, and termination and fines with possible jail time for the third incident. These schools must be more closely monitored to ensure these laws are being followed, especially at the time an incident is reported, not when it's too late, resulting in more school shootings or bully fights. There is a safe school hotline in place for the state of Mississippi that is not being utilized as much as it should be due to the fact that students or parents do not know it exists or because the students know that nothing is being done. It should be made mandatory under state law that the safe school hotline be included in the school bullying policy of each school district's handbook. This should be used in place of the victims reporting the cases to the school itself, which is obviously failing. Anytime an incident is reported, it should be mandatory that the state board of education contact the school of the victim to notify them and follow up on the actions taken, not just take the word of the school. This needs to be followed up with the victim and parent or guardian as well to make sure it is taken care of properly. Teachers should be required by the state board of education to complete training on how to handle and respond to incidents of bullying. I honestly feel like making and enforcing these changes along with our existing state anti-bullying laws will make a huge difference in the number of bullying and school shooting incidents in our school systems. Once the laws are changed or amended, I feel that notifying the school staff of said changes and resulting punishments will make a huge difference in the way they handle these incidents. I really appreciate everybody taking the time out to listen to this because it is a very important issue. I need all the support I can get with this. Please, when you go to this podcast and listen, hit follow so you can hear the next episode. In episode 3, we're going to discuss how to tell if your child is being bullied and some ways to begin handling this issue. Again, thank you for listening and don't forget to follow so you can hear future episodes.