October is bullying awareness month. Over 3.2 million students are victims of bullying each year. 1 in 4 teachers see nothing wrong with bullying and will only intervene 4% of the time. Approximately 160,000 teens skip school everyday because of bullying. 1 in 7 students in grades k-12 are either a bully or a victim of bullying. 56% of students have personally witnessed some type of bullying at school. Over 2/3 of students believe that schools respond poorly to bullying with a high percentage of students that adult help is infrequent and ineffective. 71% of students report incidents of bullying as a problem at their school. 90% of 4th-8th graders report being victims of bullying. 1 out of 10 students drop out of school because of repeated bullying. Harassment and bullying have been linked to 75% of school shooting incidents. Physical bullying in elementary school, peaks in middle school and declines in high school. Verbal abuse, on the other hand, remains constant. Bullying can affect everyone –  those who are bullied, those who bully, and those who witness bullying. Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use and suicide. It is important to talk to kids to determine whether bullying – or someone else –  is a concern. Kids that are bullied are more likely to experience: depression and anxiety, increased feeling of sadness, loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns and loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy. Those issues could even persist into adulthood. Bullying is a serious matter and everyone should take into consideration how they make people feel.