U.S. Attorney Will Discuss Bullying In Burlington

BURLINGTON, MA -- The U.S. Attorney's Office for Boston will host a program on "Keeping Childrens Safe and Secure Online" at the Marshall Simonds Middle School in Burlington at 7 pm on October 17. The event comes during National Bullying Prevention month, but will also cover topics on protecting privacy and sexual predators. The event is being sponsored by the Burlington Education Foundation.

Burlington Superintendent Eric Conti said there will also be sessions for students during the school day on October 17. Conti said it is the only event the district has planned for Bullying Prevention Month, noting that the district concentrates on bullying throughout the year.

"We focus on student empowerment (anti-bullying) every month, but this program is something extra. We try to do a presentation that involves parents every fall," Conti said in an email.

Once viewed as a childhood "rite of passage" that toughened kids to handle the pressures of adulthood, bullying and its more insidious digital twin, cyberbullying, is seen by many experts as a major public health issue — on par with heart disease, cancer and diabetes — with devastating and often long-term effects like the loss of self-esteem, heightened anxiety and depression.

We want to hear from you. Do you have a story to tell about bullying or cyberbullying, a suggestion about how to stem it or an event to publicize? Comment at the end of the story, or email bullies@patch.com. You can post Bullying Prevention Month and many other events right on Patch.

Statistics vary, but an aggregate of 80 different studies on bullying suggests one in five American students between 12 and 18 is bullied at some point during their middle or high school years. Traditional bullying — name calling, public humiliation, isolation, physical violence and that sort of thing — occurs most often, with 35 percent of kids reporting they've been targeted in one of those ways. The studies cited by the PACER Center, which established National Bullying Prevention Month, show that 15 percent of kids surveyed report being cyberbullied.

And though it occurs less often, cyberbullying — which has resulted in a disturbing string of suicides by adolescents and teenagers — is especially hard to stop. While experts say most cyberbullied kids don't kill themselves, the long-tailed internet makes a taunt live longer than one flung on the schoolyard. Kids can escape traditional bullying in the safety of their homes, but because social media is so intertwined with how kids communicate, they never really escape it.

READ: Bullied To Death: When Kids Kill With Words

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).