✅ Task Force warns of 'alarming' rise in school bullying

✅ There is one critical area of concern

✅ Report recommends the New Jersey Legislature take action

New Jersey's Anti-Bullying Task Force is warning about an "alarming" increase in hate speech in Garden State schools.

The task force has presented its finding to Gov. Phil Murphy after reviewing six years of data starting in 2016.

Task Force chairperson Shannon Cuttle said in a statement, "We all have a responsibility to ensure welcoming, inclusive, safe schools for all students, staff, and families in New Jersey."

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Numbers reported to the governor indicate there is a lot of work to be done to achieve that goal.

The most recent data available was for the 2021-2022. During that school year, schools reported more that 19,000 harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB) incidents were investigated.

Out of that number, 7,672 HIB incidents were confirmed.

That is the highest number of confirmed incidents since the state started monitoring bullying in schools.

The biggest problem

There were bright spots in the report that showed certain types of bullying and intimidation incidents.

Physical bullying, for example, dropped from 15% of all incidents in school year 2019-2020 down to just 5% in just one year.

Source: New Jersey Department of Education

Cyber-bullying numbers are continuing to skyrocket, now accounting for 37% of all incidents.

Verbal bullying an harassment is still most common, accounting for 59% of all incidents.

As for the type of bullying, Task Force members notes an alarming rise in "hurtful and harmful rhetoric, hate speech, (and) bias."

Source: New Jersey Department of Education

What can be done?

New Jersey has some of the strongest anti-bullying laws in the nation, but task the report says not enough is being done to educate school faculty, staff and students about the dangers of bullying and methods for prevention.

The Task Force is calling on the New Jersey legislature to pass a dedicated source of funding "so that schools have the needed professional staff and resources" to combat the rising number of bullying incidents.

"We need to combat hurtful and harmful narratives, hate speech, bias and HIB and address misinformation and disinformation that lead to further harm, " Cuttle said in a statement, "Reevaluating and strengthening school climate is critical so as to not foster school climates in which students may be subjected to messages of othering, saying in effect ‘you don’t belong here’, or ‘you don’t exist.’ ”