Kathy Stewart, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – As parents send their kids to school each day, they may not be aware that their children might be scared. Bullying is still a major problem at some of the best suburban schools in the D.C. area.
Recently released surveys show that bullying seems to go under the radar of parents and teachers, reports The Washington Examiner.
When John F. Kennedy High School students in Silver Spring were asked if they felt safe at school, 53 percent answered yes.
For the 2011-2012 school year at 30 of Montgomery County’s 38 middle schools, bullying incidents were up by 17 percent and at the county’s high schools, incidents shot up by 56 percent, reports the Examiner.
In Fairfax County public schools, a survey of 8th, 10th and 12th graders found that more than half of the students admitted to bullying others in the past year. At Fairfax schools, the number of bullying incidents were up for every grade, but most of the bullying happened with eighth graders.
A former middle school principal thinks the increase in bullying reports may be due to the increase in awareness of the problem.
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