by Floyd Gray (Posted on March 14, 2026 @ 12:20 a.m.)

Bullying doesn’t just hurt the person being targeted—it affects everyone in our school community. When students face bullying, it doesn’t just hurt their feelings—it can damage their confidence, affect their grades, and make them dread coming to school each day. The effects can last for months or even years after the bullying stops. With technology making cyberbullying easier than ever, our entire school community needs to learn how to recognize, report, and stop bullying before it causes lasting harm to our classmates and friends.

The biggest problem with bullying isn’t the bullies themselves, it’s bystanders. When people see bullying happening, most stay quiet thinking it’s not their problem or that someone else will handle it. This silence allows bullying to continue and get worse. Ms. Lucas, the health and wellness counselor at the junior school, explains, “I think first, if the bullying is happening and you’re seeing it, there’s this thing called bystander, and you could actually say something like, ‘Hey, that was not good,’ or ‘That’s not cool. You should not do that.’” Even a few words from a bystander can completely change the dynamic of a bullying situation. When someone speaks up, it shows the bully that their behavior isn’t acceptable and shows the victim that people care about them.

Technology has made the bullying problem even worse than it used to be. Ms. Lucas notes, “Well, I think with phones and more technology, I think we’ve definitely seen an increase in cyberbullying because of the accessibility of electronic devices.” Unlike bullying that happens at school, cyberbullying follows students home on their phones and computers. There are fewer people around to help, and it can happen all day and night without stopping. Mean messages, embarrassing photos, and hurtful comments can spread quickly online. When cyberbullying happens, students can block the person, take screenshots as proof, and tell their parents or teachers right away.

When bullying happens, victims need help to recover and feel safe again. Students should report incidents to their parents and school staff right away so adults can take action. Support groups can also help by connecting victims with others who went through the same thing and understand how they feel. This support is important because bullying seriously hurts middle schoolers in many ways. As Ms. Lucas explains, bullying has “a huge impact, especially on middle schoolers, like their self-esteem, self-worth, suicide, all that.”

Our school community has the power to change the bullying problem. When we all do our part—speaking up when we see bullying, helping victims recover, and reporting incidents to adults—we can make our school a better place. It takes everyone working together, but we can make our school a safer place for all students. The choice is ours to make.