Back to school: Bullying by the numbers

Sending kids back to school can sometimes be stressful for parents -- and it's not just because kids are growing up.

Bullying is an ever-present issue on school campuses across the country -- and bullying awareness and prevention is something that politicians, principals, teachers and parents have been trying to tackle.

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Some encouraging news is on the horizon, though. This summer, the Department of Education announced the "first significant decrease" in school-based bullying since the federal government started gathering stats in 2005.

Of note: About 22% of students ages 12 to 18 reported they were bullied at school in 2013. That number was near 30% in the previous eight years of surveys. Bullying was down across the board -- regardless of race or gender of the students.

And while any decline is considered a positive, that 22% still means that remains means that more than 2 of every 10 students are being bullied at school. That's 3.2 million students nationwide, according to DoSomething.org.

And bullying doesn't just cause stress -- it also is related directly to truancy. Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying.

What's worse, those numbers don't include the bullying that's happening away from school -- cyberbullying, or online harassment on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media apps. Of the nearly 25 million students nationwide, surveyed 6.9% reported being bullied online. Whether it's happening online or off -- harassment can often lead to depression in victims.

And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in more than four thousand deaths per year, and bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims.

So, while we're making a dent in the issue, there is clearly still a lot of work to be done.

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