East Texas counselor discusses bullying increase shown in new survey

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A recent study shows over the past five years, bullying in schools across the nation has increased. Within the past year, 40 percent of students say they have been bullied in school. This number has increased since 2019 where 26 percent of students said they were bullied.

Brooke Rigsby with Alethia Counseling Center in Tyler says bullying can affect a child in many different ways.

“Mentally, it can cause a child to have a really low self-esteem; it can cause anxiety, stress, depression all kinds of things. These can build up to cause more issues later on in the future,” Rigsby said.

The survey shows that 18% of children are cyber-bullied. She believes the increase in social media is causing the rising numbers.

“The internet has become way more accessible, more people are using it, and so now bullying isn’t just done in person but is now done over the computer, over the phone, whatever technology that you can use,” Rigsby said.

Rigsby says signs your child might be experiencing bullying are isolation, not feeling safe around other people or children, and acting out and more. She says the reasons a child might bully another child are different in each circumstance.

“There could be past trauma that may not have been dealt with, or there may be insecurities that they may not understand how to handle and so they bring it out in other people and place it upon someone else or maybe they have a lot of trials or events going on at home or their personal life’s,” Rigsby said.

Rigsby says schools implementing and educating students with anti-bullying programs can stop this increase.

She says parents should encourage their children to speak and stand up for those who are being bullied and to lend a listening ear to their children.

“Having someone to tell, to support you, to give you advice to make sure you are feeling like a good person and who you are, and you are worthy, things like that can be really, really helpful,” Rigsby said.

For the full results of the survey click here.