Dear Next President,

My name is Elizabeth, and I am one of thousands of kids everyday who has been bullied in school. I am a member of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), and we recently put on a bullying prevention program for our entire high school. Programs like these are a good start, but more needs to be done. I am especially concerned about bullying and education. We need to do more to prevent bullying because it affects victims’ school achievement.

First, the statistics on bullying are alarming. According to the 2013 article “The Educational Impact of Bullying and Cyberbullying” from the website uknowkids.com: Smart Tools for Digital Parents, “...at least 20% reported being bullied on school grounds...more than 15,000 students did not go to school because they felt unsafe...over 16% were victims of some type of cyberbullying.” Even with the amount of programs in schools today, the bullying rate is still too high. More need to be done. Students should go to school feeling safe

Second, students who are bullied have many academic issues. The same article reported that students “...may drop out of extracurricular activities, they may not speak up in class, they may not ask questions due to fear, they may even isolate themselves at school, which can cause the issue to worsen. Their performance in school also may drop, with many showing a decrease in grades. They may even resist going to school, either by staying home, or leaving school grounds after arrival.” It not fair that students do not get a good education in school because of the bullying. The students deserve being in a happy and safe place to learn without the stress that comes from being bullied. When people are getting bullied in school, they have a hard time in classes .

As the next President, I want you to help reduce bullying in schools because it is not fair to victims of bullying to miss out on their education. In order to reduce the bullying, I want you to work on new federal laws that require anti-bullying education in all of our schools nationwide.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth

10th Grade

West St. Paul, Minnesota