Bullying in Mississippi schools---What’s the Best Way to Prevent It?

Statistics show that more than 50% of all 12 to 18 year old students report experiencing some form of bullying at school. MPB's Lawayne Childrey reports on the impact.

As a social worker, Stephanie Bundle of Jackson has worked with children's issues for more than 15 years. She says the violence that students see in their home life and on TV is making a huge impact in the classroom.

“We interact violently, everything from rolling of eyes, to gesturing, to spitting gossip and that collides. It collides with other students, they collide with each other and therefore you have those bullying interactions, power seeking and not really having the skill of anger management or conflict resolution developed in the child.”

While bullying can range from hitting to manipulation to blackmail. William Lassiter, with the Department of Juvenile Justice in North Carolina says the outcome is nearly always devastating.

“Kids that are bullied are much more likely to be suicidal, they drop out of school. So it has detrimental effects on the targets but also on the bullies themselves. So a lot of people believe well this is something they’ll just grow out of. Well targets don’t tend grow out of it and the bullies don’t grow out of it. In fact about 60% of kids that are identified as being bullies in kindergarten end up getting arrested by the time they are 24 years old.”

That's why, Richland Upper Middle School teacher, Stephanie Brown, believes teaching empathy is part of the key to breaking the bullying cycle .

“It’s like don’t care about your feelings, will call this person a name. And five minutes later they’re laughing and playing and the other person they just called a name is crying and boo hooing. And you know it just doesn’t register to them how this can deeply affect that person. So part of my job is to really try to make them aware that words names do hurt names do hurt.”

Experts say parents and teachers are often a child's best defense. They suggest talking to children often and know the schools rules and sanctions regarding bullying. For MPB News, I'm Lawayne Childrey.