Bullied Kids More Likely to Bring Weapons to School
The 3 Things That May Raise the Risk of a Bullied Kid Bringing a Weapon to School
With social media inundating our children's lives, the ability to hide behind a screen and bully someone is "easier" than doing it to their face, which makes bullying more prevalent than ever before (and its effects even more painful). Now, a new study analyzed the likelihood of victims of bullying to take weapons to school — and the numbers are terrifying.
The study published in Pediatrics states that bullied teens are two times more likely to take weapons, such as guns or knives, to school.
Using national data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2015, the researchers found at the time of the survey that around 20 percent of students grades nine through 12 had been victims of bullying that year, and 4 percent had said they brought a weapon to school over that last month.
The study reports that in 2015, there were 45 school shootings in the United States, a shockingly high number, but in order to prevent these tragedies in the future, we need to look at what could provoke a student to bring a deadly weapon to school — and it is more than just bullying.
There are three additional factors that determine the likelihood of a victim of bullying to bring a weapon to school: fighting at school, being threatened or injured at school, and/or skipping school out of fear for their safety. The study authors analyzed the risk of all three factors and found that if a victim of bullying endured all three, they were 46 percent more likely to bring a weapon to school than someone who wasn't a victim of bullying (2.5 percent). Even experiencing one of these factors increases the chances of a teen bringing a weapon to school. Overall, girls were more likely to report the bullying and boys were more likely to bring weapons to school.
As parents, we need to talk to our children about bullying and how to defend someone who's being bullied. Bullying is too prevalent to ignore these potentially deadly numbers.
