Peers and Predators: Experts Warn of Sexual Bullying in Schools

By Hugh C. McBride

The American education system has taken tremendous strides throughout our nation’s history, evolving from the disciplined austerity of the one-room schoolhouse into an innovative and inclusive environment that is supported by time-tested educational theories and the latest technological advances.

Yet throughout the centuries, one aspect of the classroom has remained nearly constant: the bully.

Experts estimate that as many as half of all public school students in the United States will be bullied at least once during their academic careers, with 10 percent enduring regular, long-term abuse at the hands of peers.

According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center (NYVPRC), bullying remains a pervasive problem with effects on both victim and perpetrator that can endure long after the torment itself has stopped:

• Almost 30 percent of youth in the United States (more than 5.7 million people) are estimated to be involved in bullying as either a bully, a target of bullying, or both.
• In a national survey of students in grades six through 10, 13 percent of survey respondents reported bullying others, 11 percent reported being the target of bullies, and 6 percent said that they both bullied others and were bullied themselves.
• Researchers have found that years later, long after the bullying has stopped, adults who were bullied as youth have higher rates of depression and lower levels self-esteem than adults who were not bullied.
• There appears to be a strong relationship between bullying other students and experiencing later legal and criminal problems as an adult. In one study, 60 percent of those who were characterized as bullies between grades six and nine had at least one criminal conviction by age 24.

Bullying can take many forms, with the most common forms including physical (hitting, punching, or otherwise attacking); verbal (name calling or threatening); emotional (social exclusion); and cyber (sending threatening or insulting messages via e-mail, or posting such information online).

But in recent years, experts have begun calling attention to a type of bullying that if not necessarily new, has been underreported: sexual bullying

Sexual bullying occurs when any of the previously noted types of bullying involve violence, threats, comments, or slurs that are sexual in nature. Incidences can range from spreading rumors or calling names (such as “fag” or “slut”) to sexual assault and rape.

Though sex-based harassment or attacks may sound more like an “adult” problem than a prevalent problem in our schools, organizations including the American Association of University Women (AAUW) report that the problem is both real and widespread. The following statistics are taken from an AAUW publication titled Harassment-Free Hallways: How to Stop Sexual Harassment in School:

• Eighty-one percent of students in U.S. schools will experience some form of sexual harassment during their school lives, with 27 percent experiencing it often.
• Eighty-five percent of surveyed students report that students harass other students at their schools.
• Almost 40 percent of students report that teachers and other school employees sexually harass students in their schools.

Sexual bullying is in no way limited to schools in the 50 U.S. states. On Jan. 5, 2009, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired an episode of its investigative current affairs program “Panorama” titled “Kids Behaving Badly” that examined this troubling phenomenon in British schools.

Among other revelations, the “Panorama” presenters reported that a study by Britain’s Department for Children, Schools, and Families (DCSF) found that more than 3,500 British students had been suspended for sexual misconduct in the previous years. A survey that “Panorama” conducted in cooperation with the charity Young Voice found that 10 percent of respondents (between the ages of 11 and 19) said they had been forced to take part in at least one sex act.

“We are looking at sexual misconduct, name-calling and also inappropriate touching, and young people being forced into sexual activity that they are not really comfortable with,” Richard Piggin of the charity organization Beatbullying said in a Jan. 5 article on the Guardian UK website. “There is a significant number of young people that we have worked with who have told us that they have either experienced it, or have witnessed it in their schools or in their community.”

Back in the United States, a New York family has filed a $2 million lawsuit against the city of New York, the Education Department, and Public School 106 over what the family claims was two years of torment that led up to the sexual assault of a second-grade girl in her classroom.

In a Jan. 9 New York Daily News article, staff writer Nicole Bode describes the horrifying allegations:

“It's a pretty alarming case,” said lawyer Adam Thompson, who represents the family. The Daily News is withholding the family's name.

“[The girl] was violently attacked, battered, struck, forcibly touched and raped by a violent and dangerous student,” Thompson wrote in court papers. …

The suit says the problems began in November 2005, when a first-grade classmate crept beneath the victim's bathroom stall and kissed her on the mouth.

Sills refused to grant the girl a transfer to another school. Relatives persuaded the Education Department to reassign her, but she was denied transportation, so she had to remain at PS 106, legal documents say.

The abuse escalated the next year – as the little girl was attacked three times by gangs of girls and boys in the schoolyard.

“She was violently attacked, assaulted, battered and struck by one boy, causing bruising all over her legs,” the suit says.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) advises parents who suspect that their child is being bullied to be on the lookout for the following signs:

• Coming home from school with torn, damaged, or missing articles of clothing.
• Suffering from unexplained scratches, cuts, or bruises.
• Appearing to be afraid or expressing fear of going to school.
• Losing interest in school.
• Complaining of frequent headaches, stomachaches, or other ailments.
• Having trouble sleeping or frequent nightmares.
• Appearing to be frequently sad, teary-eyed, moody, or downcast upon arriving home from school.

If you suspect that your child is being bullied, or if you think that your child may be bullying other students, you need to take action. Talk to your child about your concerns, and meet with teachers or other school personnel to discuss the matter. Depending upon what you discover, you may need to involve law enforcement, medical personnel, therapists, or other professionals to end the behavior and address any physical, social, and emotional issues that may have led to or been exacerbated by the bullying.