Public schools report little, no bullying

Opposition suggests kids are too afraid to report it

Bullying appears to be on the decline in Florida, with schools reporting about half as many incidents in 2015 as they did five years earlier.

Most school districts reported fewer than one case of bullying per 1,000 students, and about two-thirds of all public schools told the state they had no cases of bullying. Even South Florida’s largest school with nearly 4,500-students that year, Cypress Bay High in Weston, reported no bullying.

Those numbers, which the state requires schools to report, are much lower than federal estimates for the region that were made during the same period. And even some local school officials question whether the numbers are greatly under-reported.

A Sun-Sentinel analysis of bullying reported in South Florida schools showed:

More than 600 schools in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties reported no incidents. That’s almost threequarters of all South Florida public schools.

In Broward, 86 percent of schools reported no cases of bullying. Overall, the state’s second-largest district reported about three bullying incidents for every 10,000 students, ranking it 32nd among 38 larger districts. The school that reported the most incidents in Broward was Oriole Elementary School, with four cases among its 600-plus students.

In Palm Beach County, more than 60 percent of schools reported no bullying. The state’s fifth-largest district ranked 14th among large districts. It reported almost 10 incidents for every 10,000 students. In West Palm Beach, Western Pines Community Middle, with 1,065 students, and Okeeheelee Middle, with about 1,400 students, reported the most incidents: 10 each.

In Miami-Dade County, about 70 percent of schools reported no cases of bullying. The state’s largest district ranked 19th among larger districts and reported eight incidents for every 10,000 students. Cutler Bay Middle reported the most cases,

“It’s impossible. Totally, totally impossible.” — Ross Ellis, CEO of New York-based Stomp Out Bullying

with 13 for its 1,153 students that year.

The issue of bullying gained attention in Broward recently after a student posted footage on Twitter of several girls attacking her at Plantation High. In November, a mother asked the school board for help after she said school officials didn’t separate her daughter from a bully. Also that month, a mother filed a lawsuit against the district after several classmates attacked her daughter on her way to lunch.

Florida school officials reported fewer than 3,000 incidents in 2015 — down from almost 6,200 cases in 2010. Although roughly half of schools reported no bullying in 2010, nearly twothirds reported no cases in 2015.

Some experts credit the downward trend to antibullying organizations that have raised awareness and offered students support, as well as school-based education campaigns and clear procedures for diffusing severe cases.

But having so many schools report no incidents has raised skepticism among experts that schools don’t have accurate documentation of their bullying problems. And that can hinder their ability to properly tackle the problem, they say.

“It’s impossible. Totally, totally impossible,” said Ross Ellis, CEO of New York-based Stomp Out Bullying, a national organization that focuses on reducing bullying. “I would like to say ‘Yay,’ for all these schools, ‘They’re so lucky that they don’t have this.’ ... I don’t believe that.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 22 percent of kids get bullied at school. But Florida schools reported that only 0.1 percent of state students do.

And a 2015 federal Youth Risk Behavior Survey by the national Centers for Disease Control indicated that a total of more than 30,000 high school students in MiamiDade, Broward and Palm Beach counties were victims of bullying at school within that year.

But South Florida schools reported to the state that they had about 550 bullying incidents involving all ages that year — or about 1.8 percent of the number the CDC estimated for high school students alone.

Both of the federal measurements were conducted by survey, while state numbers are collected by school officials, based on what students tell them.

Broward School Board Member Rosalind Osgood said students are more likely to answer a survey than report bullying to adults for fear of retaliation or being considered a snitch. More focus on anonymous reporting may help schools better track bullying problems, she said.

A 2010 study found that 64 percent of students who get bullied don’t report it.

Osgood said she suspects that’s part of the reason for the district’s low numbers. But it’s vital for schools to accurately document bullying cases in order to improve the problem, she said.

“It allows the school to do a better job about trying to protect the kids. If you don’t know, you can’t address it,” said Osgood, who plans to host discussions with the community this month on the topic. “We need to have better relationships where [students] feel comfortable sharing those types of things that they’re enduring.”

Florida’s drop in reported cases also may reflect that schools are simply reporting fewer incidents as bullying. In Palm Beach County, school board chair Chuck Shaw said staff has gotten more selective about what constitutes bullying to handle behavioral issues more appropriately.

In addition, peer mediation and staff working more closely with parents on student disputes has helped drive down bullying incidents, he said.

“The reality of it is the discipline of children is the responsibility of parents, not the responsibility of the rest of the world,” Shaw said. “If we’re going to get the kids who bully others to actually make changes in what they do, then we need cooperation from parents.”