By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Contributing Columnist
The day after Christmas I stood in front of the headquarters of the Culver City Unified School District. The issue was school bullying.
To be more specific, the bullying of Black students. I called on Culver City School Superintendent Brian Lucas and school officials to take a hard, firm and consistent stand against bullying.
Specifically, I called on them to create an emergency anti-bullying task force composed of selected teachers, administrators, counselors and parents. It would be tasked with monitoring, reporting and taking firm action from counseling to disciplinary action in all reported bullying incidents. This would send the message that the district policy toward bullying was zero tolerance. That was crucial.
What brought me there was a bullying incident that involved a Black student at a Culver City elementary school. The complaint of bullying, and the targeting of the Black student was bad enough. Even worse than the complaint was that the response from school administrators was tepid, even skeptical toward the incident. That set off a loud bell and whistle and stirred the demand that Culver City school officials quickly and publicly take immediate action.
Anything less would reinforce the widespread notion, even fear, that Culver City school officials — as sadly is the case with many other school districts nationally — pay much lip service to stopping bullying, but nothing more.
That’s especially true when it comes to taking tough action against bullying when Black students are targeted. There have been numerous complaints, protests, and lawsuits by Black parents at schools in California and nationally against school districts for virtually turning a blind eye toward school bullying acts. To be clear, bullying can take many forms.
Students ages 12-18 in grades 6-12 experienced various types of bullying, including:
• Having rumors spread about them (13%).
• Being made fun of, called names, or insulted (11.9%).
• Pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on (4.9%).
• Being excluded from activities, social media, or communications (3.7%).
• Threatened with harm (3.3%).
• Having private information, photos, or videos purposely shared in a hurtful way (2.5%).
•Others tried to make them do things they did not want to do (2.5%).
• Property was destroyed on purpose (1.4%).
One recent well-publicized incident involved a 14 year old at a school in South Carolina. She was repeatedly taunted and harassed by students and even a teacher. The bullying only became a national story when she tried to kill herself because of the severe emotional trauma she suffered from the harassment.
In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that suicide attempts by Black students increased faster than any other racial or ethnic group. The increase was solely due to racism and school bullying.
Then there was the issue of violent attacks against Black students at some schools. A parent at a high school in the San Fernando Valley in December filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District after her son was allegedly assaulted at the school.
Their cases were case hardly an aberration. A 2023 report from the Public Health Post, a national wellness organization, confirmed that African-American students were far more likely to be subject to harassment, taunts, intimidation and even physical violence than other students.
The report also found that they are less likely to report incidents of bullying and school officials often do little to prevent the bullying. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights confirmed this disturbing fact. It pointed to many instances where “schools have turned a blind eye to known acts of racial harassment.”
Many school officials complain that they simply lack adequate resources to recognize and respond to the specific type of trauma bullied Black students suffer.
The consequence of school bullying has been devastating. Numerous studies have found lagging academic performance, a surge in school absenteeism and a sharp rise in dropout rates caused by bullying.
A 2024 report from the Journal of Early Adolescence found that students who are subjected to bullying scored lower on standardized tests and received poorer grades than their non-bulled peers.
Then there’s the emotional toll of bullying. An increase in stress, anxiety, depression, an acute sense of isolation and sadly, the thought of and even attempt at suicide. In far too many cases, students are left on their own to deal with the bullying due to the unresponsiveness of school officials, and the absence of vital support resources to help them.
Some states take the crisis of school bullying seriously. They mandate that school districts tightly monitor and report all incidents of bullying.
New Jersey has gone further and requires that school districts establish anti-bullying task forces. That was the action I called on Culver City School District officials to take. Anything less, is tantamount to a “blind eye” to bullying. That ensures that Black students will continue to be at extreme peril from the silent crisis of school bullying.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is “Day 1: The Trump Reign” (Middle Passage Press). He also is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Facebook Livestreamed.
