We talk to a lot kids after our anti-bullying school assemblies. Despite all the recent media attention, bullying is still a huge problem. We see it first hand every day!
According to a recent study, Asian Americans are the most bullied group in US schools. [Link]
From the article:
The research, to be released on Saturday, found that 54 percent of Asian American teenagers said they were bullied in the classroom, sharply above the 31.3 percent of whites who reported being picked on.
The figure was 38.4 percent for African Americans and 34.3 percent for Hispanics, a government researcher involved in the data analysis told AFP. He requested anonymity because the data has not been made public.
The disparity was even more striking for cyber-bullying.
Some 62 percent of Asian Americans reported online harassment once or twice a month, compared with 18.1 percent of whites.
The full article is well worth your time to read.
I posted my personal bullying story here a long time ago. One of the things we teach kids is to make new friends and stick together. This is a technique I had a lot of personal success with growing up.
One of the people I made friends with was an Asian American. I won’t post their story here. I had my struggles, but what they went through was in an entirely different league.
For me, the most interesting part of the article came at the end:
A number of Asian countries have also wrestled with bullying.
Japan stepped up measures in 2006 after at least four youngsters killed themselves in a matter of days and the education minister said he had received an anonymous letter from a bullied student who was contemplating suicide.
The greatest takeaway for me is that bullying isn’t just a problem isolated to the United States. It’s a global problem that spans cultures, race, and economic backgrounds. Our world is becoming more connected. With that comes a need for greater cultural sensitivity.
Image by decafeined licensed under Creative Commons.
