Today, 160,000 students across America will skip school because they are afraid of being bullied at school. What is even more heartbreaking is that some students seek a more permanent solution to a temporary problem.
That was the case for Jamel Myles, a 9-year-old boy from Denver who last week felt that the only way to deal with bullying at school was to take his own life. It was just four days into the new school year. This heartbreaking tragedy happened less than a year after 10 year-old Ashawnty Davis took her own life in Aurora because she was bullied.
While school districts in Colorado are required to have a safe school plan that includes policies on bullying prevention and education, it’s clear that existing policies aren’t working because kids are still bullied in classrooms, playgrounds, and online.
That’s why my colleagues and I worked to pass legislation last year requiring the Colorado Department of Education to research approaches, policies, and practices in other states related to bullying, and to develop a model bullying prevention and education policy. However, the Department of Education’s deadline to present that research is July 1, 2019. That timeline is no longer acceptable.
Over 3.2 million students in the United States are victims of bullying each year, and students like Jamel – who had recently come out as gay – and Ashawnty – who was black – are more likely to be bullied than their peers. About 25 percent of black students and 75 percent of LGBT students report being bullied in school. But bullies don’t discriminate. Kids are bullied because they are too short, too tall, too fat, too pretty, too gay, too black, too cool, too nerdy, too poor, or too rich – and the list goes on and on.
Diversity is a source of strength and our differences should be celebrated, not ridiculed. But that hasn’t been the case since 2016, and it’s clear that our children have been listening, watching, and learning to the divisive tone in national politics. Seventy percent of respondents to a Human Rights Campaign survey released in 2017 reported having witnessed bullying, hate messages, or harassment since the 2016 election, with racial bias the most common motive cited.
We know engaging them in difficult conversations and teaching them when to get adults involved is a good place to start, but we need effective solutions based on research now. The research from the Colorado Department of Education will empower us to develop policies that will foster safe communities and schools for our children.
The stakes are too high to wait until 2019 to learn about the best approaches to bullying prevention and education. Our children are suffering from emotional and physical violence, so much so that some decide to take their own life. That is unacceptable.
Safe2Tell Colorado: 1-877-542-7233
Democratic State Sen. Rhonda Fields represents Aurora.