Madeline’s House focuses on bullying

Published 11:08 am Wednesday, August 30, 2017

School shootings, online attacks and suicide — for many parents these three things encapsulate your fears for your children, according to a press release from Madeline’s House. Do you know what these three things have in common? Bullying.

“When talking about bullying, parents often swear that their child would never bully someone, but would stand up for a peer who was being harassed or abused,” officials said in the release. “However, statistically, this is not the case. Every seven minutes a child is bullied. Children only stand up for another child 11 percent of the time (85 percent of bullying incidents have zero intervention.)”

According to the release, 86 percent of students report that being bullied led them to turn to lethal violence in school. Eighty-seven percent state that school shootings are motivated by a desire to get back at people who have hurt them. And, one in 20 students have seen a student bring a gun to school. In other words, the majority of deadly violence in school in due to bullying.”

For parents, online fears are normally surrounding a sexual component, according to the release. “While this is important, cyber-bullying is growing with every new account created. Eighty-eight percent of social media users report having seen bullying online, almost half of all children have been bullied online. More alarming, 55 percent see those incidents result in zero intervention.”

“Suicide is the leading cause of death for children under 14,” according to the release.