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While school is one of the most frequent settings for bullying, it can occur in many other situations. Other contexts include the child’s neighborhood, texting, phone calls, and on the Internet by using social media. Bullying that occurs through cell phones and social media is called cyberbullying 3 , which has had a rampant rise over the last two decades. Cyberbullying includes verbal bullying and relational bullying, but does not include physical bullying because of its distant and detached, possibly even anonymous, nature. If bullying can occur in such a wide variety of contexts, we need to discuss when bullying starts to affect these children. When Does Bullying Begin? Research has shown that bullying is far more likely to occur between adolescents in middle school than in high school 5 . This has been seen in research regarding both cyberbullying and FTF bullying and is true for both boys and girls. Younger adolescents

DON’T SUFFER ALONE

In a nationwide survey conducted in 2021, 19% of high school students reported having been bullied in the last year. Of students between the ages of 12 and 18, only 46% reported getting bullied to an adult. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Please report any bullying you experience or observe to a trusted adult.

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Chapter 1: Bullying Today