Bullying is a pervasive problem in the US. 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) indicates that about 20% of students in grades 9–12 report being bullied on school property. Bullying can result in decreased academic performance, physical harm, and mental health issues for those bullied, and increased violence and substance abuse for those bullying.

There are state laws and policies on bullying, as well as many federal and non-federal resources that provide training on bullying prevention and intervention and support for victims of bullying. Nevertheless, bullying remains frequent, and there needs to be a stronger change that uses current resources more effectively and can bring more fundamental change in addressing this issue.

(p.s. I added a photo of my ecosystem map below, which shows up fine in edit mode, but doesn’t appear on the uploaded post. Not sure if this is a problem with my browser setting.)