Fear of being bullied causes 160,000 students to miss school every day, according to the National Education Association. Recent research shows kids who bully are more likely to abuse their spouses as adults.
SafePlace -- a local domestic violence shelter -- addressed the issue long before the research surfaced.
It's a part of growing-up, a right of passage into adulthood, but new research reveals bullying isn't just a problem when you're a kid.
"In bullying, you have the same dynamic that you do in domestic violence. You have one person using power and control over another person to get what they want," Ellen Sanchez, with SafePlace, said.
SafePlace has been taking its anti-bullying program to schools since 1997. They have children write personal testimonials are part of a training exercise to address bullying.
"We were given a grant to develop a model for schools to address the issue of bullying. The CDC, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had recognized the relationship between bullying and later violence," Sanchez said.
SafePlace is working with 18 elementary and middle schools in Austin Independent School District this year. Advocates have developed programs like "Bully Proof" and "Quit It" to teach adult guardians specifically how to make schools like Murchison safer.
"Like I tell the kids all the time, ‘why should we let five or six bullies or five or six harassers make the rest of the1,200 of us stand in fear?’ Why don't we all speak up that this will not be tolerated at this campus and show and model our behavior?" 7th grade science teacher Karen Green said.
After its research into the Columbine shootings, the FBI confirmed schools will not be safer with more security, but by dealing with bullies.
"In two-thirds of them, they were motivated by long-term, severe bullying and sexual harassment that the shooters had endured that was never addressed on campuses," Sanchez said.
The attitude has always been ‘toughen up, put up with it, I went through it, so can you.’ But Sanchez said that will only lead to more Columbines.
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Bullying leads to domestic violence
Recent research shows kids who bully will likely grow to be adults who beat their spouses.
 
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"Most of the time the response was always ‘just stay away from those people, just get a thicker skin, don't be so sensitive.’ The problem was made the target's problem. You just have to find a way to cope was basically the message, rather than this is not OK," Sanchez said.
So, while it's a part of growing up and a right of passage, bullying is no longer a playground problem. It's getting the attention of adults.
Since SafePlace's anti-bullying program started, AISD has adopted a strict policy for all its schools. The policy does not tolerate any kind of bullying, sexual harassment or dating violence on AISD campuses.
