States with highest incidence of high school bullying

Nationwide, 19 percent of students in grades 9 to 12 in 2017 said they had been bullied at school.

Nearly one-fifth of high school students in 2017 said they had been bullied at school in the previous year, a federal report says.

"Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2018," a joint report from the U.S. Education Department and the U.S. Justice Department, says that 19 percent of public school students in grades 9 through 12 said they were the targets of bullying on school grounds.

In the report, bullying is defined as "when one or more students tease, threaten, spread rumors about, hit, shove, or hurt another student over and over again."

Statistics were not available for several states, but for those included in the data, these are the 10 states with the highest percentage of students who said they had been bullied.

About the Author

Mike Kennedy

Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy has been writing about education for American School & University since 1999. He also has reported on schools and other topics for The Chicago Tribune, The Kansas City Star, The Kansas City Times and City News Bureau of Chicago. He is a graduate of Michigan State University.

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