The latest public school survey results in 2024 show that more than half of students believe they occasionally or often see classmates bullying each other in school, the highest in the past five years. At the same time, more teachers expressed dissatisfaction with principals, while parents wanted more options for extracurricular and after-school activities.
More than 355,000 middle and high school students participated in this annual public school survey. About 51% of students believed that they had witnessed students in their school encounter campus bullying due to gender, sexual orientation, race and other reasons. This figure was only 44% in 2019. There are five questions about school bullying in the survey, and the data from the answers to each question show that bullying is more serious than in previous years. It is worth mentioning that in the answers to each question, girls saw more bullying than boys, reflecting the different experiences of different genders in campus life.
Among them, one of the most significant changes comes from discrimination and bullying related to students’ race, religion and immigration background. This year, 40% of students believe they often see their classmates being bullied in this way, an increase of one-third from 30% in 2019. The reason for this figure is the massive controversy caused by the Israel-Hamas war, as well as the influx of immigrant students who fear that their identity will be targeted.
At the same time, online bullying has become increasingly serious. This year, about 43% of students said they often see bullying and harassment among classmates online, an increase of 8% from five years ago. Many parents believe that this is inseparable from the social media that has become a part of student life. Therefore, many Chinese parents hope to see a stricter ban on mobile phones on campus to reduce the time students spend on mobile phones every day. But according to Mayor Eric Adams’ speech last week, New York will not usher in a city-wide ban on cell phones in schools just yet.
Republican state Senate candidate and public school parent Zhu Yating said that school bullying is parents’ worst nightmare, and she believes that part of the reason why school bullying is becoming more serious today is because of the lack of strict discipline and punitive measures. “Many policies “The power of principals and teachers to punish students has been reduced,” which has also made some students more unscrupulous.
Regarding her 13-year-old daughter, Zhu Yating also said that she has always encouraged her daughter to use less social media and have more contact with classmates offline. “But it is really difficult. The COVID-19 epidemic has made everyone accustomed to online contact, but this is not very healthy”.
