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Abstract
The suicide of a cyberbullied student prompted the school-aged authors of this article to administer a Child Abuse Prevention Services survey to 587 students in seventh and eighth grades at four schools. Results showed that 4 of 5 students felt bullying is a problem, with 1 in 3 admitting to having bullied someone. Of those who did nothing when they witnessed bullying, 4 of 10 gave as the reason, “It wasn't my business.” While three quarters of respondents felt “safe/very safe” in school, many are perpetrators (one third) and victims (half). With over half reporting doing nothing the last time they saw someone being bullied, and 1 in 4 stating they did not intervene because they “didn't care,” a concerning level of apathy toward bullying was revealed.
We thank the Child Abuse Prevention Services (CAPS), Roslyn, New York, for sharing its survey instrument used for this study; Dr. Duolao Wang, a statistician at the University of London who offered invaluable guidance and expertise; the middle schools for agreeing to be part of this study; Paul Auster who administered surveys at one school; the parents of the teen authors of this article who gave ongoing support; and Jeffrey Johnston's family, whose efforts made the Florida CitationAnti-Bullying Bill (2007) possible. We dedicate this article to Jeffrey Johnston.
