Help Stop Teen Bullying: Take the Facebook Pledge, Complete School Survey

Bullying is a problem that is getting a lot of local attention this month since the school system is asking for input through a prevention survey and the governor and first lady of Maryland recently joined representatives from Facebook and Time Warner's Cartoon Network to talk with students in Anne Arundel County.

"The best ways to combat bullying are to raise awareness, speak up and intervene if you see it happening," wrote first lady Katie O'Malley wrote in her blog.

O'Malley encourages teens and parents to take the "Stop Bullying, Speak Up" pledge on Facebook.

Schools are trying to address the problem of bullying but they realize that abuse often goes unreported. Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) offers a bullying prevention survey to obtain input from parents, staff and students about the pressures students face in school. Respondents also have the opportunity to comment on the way schools deal with bullying.

Each year, AACPS provides the results of this bullying prevention survey. (A PDF of school results is attached to this article.) Middle and high school results for Broadneck range from less than a third of respondents reporting being bullied in middle school compared to two-thirds of high school respondents saying they were bullied.

For in 2010, only 25 parents and nine students responded:

• 66.7 percent of those responding said they were bullied.
• 77.8 percent of respondents said they had "seen adults in the school watching bullying and doing nothing."

Survey respondents for in 2010 included one staff member, 17 parents and 726 students:

• 23.4 percent of those responding said they were bullied.
• 59.1 percent of respondents said they had seen someone else being bullied during the last month

For in 2010, survey respondents included one staff member, 53 parents and 148 students.

• 29.7 percent of those responding said they were bullied.
• 52.7 percent of respondents said they had seen someone else being bullied during the last month

Schools can better address the problem parents and students complete the bullying prevention surveys, which are now available through Dec. 9 and can be taken online at www.aacps.org/survey. Note that the following passcodes should be used when taking the survey:

Parents: nq38dp
Students (grades 4-5): nz87ay
Students (grades 6-12): ka96gs

Editor's note: Click here to see the results of the bullying prevention survey for elementary school students in the Broadneck feeder system.