Oct. 10 is National Stop Bullying Day and October is National Bullying Prevention month. National Stop Bullying Day always lands on the second Wednesday of October.
In their 2017 Online Harassment study the PEW Research Center found “roughly 4 in 10 Americans have personally experienced online harassment.”
The American Educational Research Association, published a study “Prevention of Bullying in Schools, Colleges and Universities” in 2013.
The AERA compared a range of bullying studies in different schools across the country.
A 2006 Hill and Silva study said “62 percent of female college students and 61 percent of male college students reported having been sexually harassed at their university.”
However the Citrus College Annual Security Report says there have been zero crimes involving harassment in the last three years.
Lieutenant James DeMond of the Glendora Police Department said they receive reports of bullying from elementary, middle and high schools but do not receive any from the college.
DeMond said that the police department only gets involved if bullying escalates to a crime.
Bullying in colleges and universities is not limited to students.
A McKay, Arnold, Fratzl and Thomas study from 2008 said 32 to 52 percent of university faculty and staff are bullied.
The study found the duration of bullying normally lasts anywhere from three to five years.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention updated an article about bullying research in July.
“Bullying may inflict harm or distress on the targeted youth including physical, psychological, social, or educational harm” the CDC report said.
The CDC’s October 2017 article lists a variety of suicide risk factors including hopelessness, loss, isolation, barriers accessing mental treatment, physical illness and aggressive tendencies.
In 2016 the CDC reported that the second leading cause of death in ages 10-34 is suicide, behind unintentional injury.
Preventing bullying can alleviate some risk factors and create a healthier educational environment.
Standing up when you see someone being bullied, training staff to spot bullying and enforcing the anti-bullying rules in schools are a few ways to prevent bullying.
DeMond asks students to report any incidents they see because they are the “eyes and ears of the campus.”
Head of Campus Safety, Benjamin Macias said incidents can be reported through the Citrus Guardian app. Macias said when a crime is reported on the app, campus safety can locate the incident using the app.
More bullying prevention techniques can be found at https://www.stopbullying.gov/.
