This coming week, children across New York head back to school for a new year of learning and growing.

Unfortunately, for far too many children, a new school year is a time of great anxiety for those who fear the awful physical and emotional abuse of being relentlessly bullied at school.

Earlier this year, the state Comptroller issued a startling report that shows bullying at schools is on the rise and “even exceeding pre-pandemic highs.”

According to the Comptroller’s Report, in the 2023-24 school year (the most recent data available), bullying made up 61.8 percent of all incidents reported to the State Education Department (a total of 29,718 incidents).

In 2017-18, the bullying rates reported were 10.2 incidents per 1,000 students statewide, which was the pre-pandemic high.

That’s now skyrocketed to a new high of 18.2 incidents per 1,000 students.

It’s heartbreaking that any child should face such anguish from going to school each day due to bullying.

As any adult can attest, bullying has existed within the bricks and mortar of our schools for years.

It used to be........

© The Saratogian