A recent survey of 43,000
high school students found that public school students were more likely to
participate in physical violence, while private school students were more
likely to have teased or taunted someone, and more likely to have felt bullied
themselves.
Fifty-two percent of public
school students say they have hit someone in anger in the past year, according
to the study by the Josephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics, compared to 47
percent of students in private religious high schools and 41 percent of
students in
secular private high
schools.
The study found that 60
percent of boys at religious school have “bullied, teased or taunted” someone
at least once in the past year, compared to 55 percent of boys in public or
secular private schools.
Girls in religious schools
also were more likely to have verbally bullied someone than girls in the other
two categories.
About a quarter (23 percent)
of religious-school students have “mistreated someone because he or she
belonged to a different group,” compared to 21 percent of public school
students and 15 percent of secular private students.
A major conclusion that can
be drawn from the survey is that girls from all types of schools are nicer to
their schoolmates than boys — or perhaps the boys are more honest.
Overall, boys were more
likely than girls to agree with these statements: “I’m prejudice against
certain groups,” “It’s sometimes OK to hit or threaten someone when I am very
angry,” “I have bullied, teased or taunted someone,” “I have used racial slurs
or insults,” and “I have been under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol
at school.”
Boys were three times more
likely than girls to “strongly agree” with the question on prejudice. Boys also
were 50 percent more likely to have bullied or teased someone twice or more in
the past year, or hit someone because they were angry.
The survey did not detect
much difference in civility — or lack of it — when comparing different regions
of the country. Seniors are more civil than freshmen, but not by a huge margin.
Student leaders,
college-bound students, honor students, female athletes and those in youth
activities reported more civil behavior than others. Male athletes, however,
were slightly more likely to have bullied than male non-athletes.
Officials at the Los
Angeles-based Josephson Institute said the real take-away of the survey is not
the demographic differences, but the fact that bullying is so pervasive in
American high schools.
“If the saying, ‘Sticks and
stones will break my bones but names will never harm me,’ was ever true, it
certainly is not so today,” Michael Josephson, founder and president of the
Institute, said in a statement.
“Insults, name calling,
relentless teasing and malicious gossip often inflict deep and enduring pain,”
he said. “It’s not only the prevalence of bullying behavior and victimization
that’s troublesome. The Internet has intensified the injury. What’s posted on
the Internet is permanent, and it spreads like a virus — there is no refuge.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Mack writes
for The Kalamazoo Gazette.)