According to A Guide to Bullying Prevention, a joint project of the Massachusetts Commission on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and the Governor’s Task Force on Hate Crimes, [2007], every young person deserves the right to feel safe in their community and their school. Bullying is the aggressive, unjust use of force by a more powerful person or group toward a less powerful person or group. Often this physical, psychological, or emotional aggression is repetitive behavior done with the desire to hurt the victim and exploit the power imbalance.
The purpose of our Anti-Bullying Task Force is to establish effective prevention and intervention strategies concerning bullying between and among our youth. We strive to focus on building healthy relationships and fostering an anti-bullying message while collaborating with parents, school systems, and youth programs.
In the 2005 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MYRBS), roughly one in four students (24%) reported being bullied at school within the previous year. Being bullied included being repeatedly teased, threatened, hit, kicked, shunned, or excluded by another student or group of students. 22% of males and 26% of female high school students reported being bullied in the 12 months before the survey. The MYRBS also found that students receiving special education services were significantly more likely to have been bullied (38% vs. 22%). They were also more likely to have skipped school because they felt unsafe (8% vs. 4%), (2005 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey).