According to a new survey by the Department of Education, white students between the ages of 12 and 18 are more likely to report being bullied than blacks and Hispanics. While the survey finds that, overall, bullying incidents are down compared to 2011, government officials insist there is still room for improvement.
“Even though we’ve come a long way over the past few years in educating the public about the health and educational impacts that bullying can have on students, we still have more work to do to ensure the safety of our nation’s children,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
The survey found that 24% of white students said they had been the victim of bullying while only 20% of black students said the same. 19% of Hispanic students reported being victimized while 9% of Asian students said they had been bullied at some point in 2013. The survey also found that girls were more likely to report bring bullied than boys.
Any guesses on how the media will report this survey? Anyone care to take a stab at how those reports would differ if black students reported being bullied at a higher rate than whites? The safe bet is that the liberal media will go out of their way to ignore the racial component of the survey. Some intrepid reporters may draw attention to it, only if they can find a way to spin it towards their usual idea of social justice. For instance, “privileged” white kids may have a broader definition of bullying than black students, thus meaning we still have work to do when it comes to informing black students that they are being victimized.
Regardless, a survey like this gives the Education Department the mandate it needs to call for further federal interference. And because there has been an uptick in social media bullying, you can count on Democratic politicians to press for more school oversight when it comes to what students are doing outside of school. And if schools don’t have the resources to monitor Facebook 24/7, then the feds will just have to ask for more tax money to make it easier on them.
Or perhaps this is just the opening Duncan needs to push for “public boarding schools,” an idea he dropped at a violence summit this week. According to Duncan, there are “certain kids” who would be better off in school around the clock. He cited the danger of street violence as a good argument for schools that never let their students go home. That might work for students who live in gang-infested neighborhoods, but for nearly a quarter of white students being bullied and victimized at school, full-time boarding might not be the best plan.
And for parents concerned about their children’s safety, private alternatives and homeschooling are looking better by the day.
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