Bullying in N.J. schools has jumped to its highest level ever, state report finds

Incidents of harassment, intimidation and bullying in New Jersey public schools have escalated at an alarming rate to their highest levels ever, according to a new state report.

The findings are the latest by the New Jersey Anti-Bullying Task Force included in a 76-page report to Gov. Phil Murphy and the state legislature so the state can study its anti-bullying laws, considered some of the toughest in the country.

The 11-member task force reviewed data from the state Attorney General’s Office showing that bias-based incidents quadrupled between 2018 and 2023. Since 2015, the report said, there has been a 400% increase in those incidents.

Bias incidents occurring at elementary and secondary schools jumped from 96 in 2020, to 207 in 2021, when students returned to in-person learning after a gap during the pandemic, the report said.

The number of incidents during the pandemic declined significantly to the lowest rates ever reported in New Jersey, yet the report found that “students still experienced a prevalence of different types of victimization and HIB,” the acronym for harassment, intimidation and bullying.

The task force believes underreporting may have led to the decline in incidents during the pandemic, and not a change in school climate and culture. It also noted that COVID-19 impacted students’ mental health and wellness.

When schools fully reopened in the 2021-22 school year, the report said, “an alarming 7,672 incidents” were confirmed, and 19,138 investigations were reported. The task force said that represents the most HIB cases reported since the state began collecting the data.

The task force, which last convened in 2016, noted that there had been several bullying cases in New Jersey that made national headlines.

In February, Felicia LoAlbo-Melendez, 11, died by suicide at the F.W. Holbein School in Mount Holly. In a lawsuit, her family said the sixth grader was relentlessly bullied by classmates, and school officials did nothing to stop it.

The Rockaway Township School District in Morris County reached a $9.1 million settlement in July with the family of a 12-year-old girl who was relentlessly cyberbullied and died by suicide. It was the largest settlement of a bullying case in New Jersey history.

» READ MORE: What N.J. law dictates schools should do to crack down on bullying

Diane Sammons, a lawyer with Nagel Rice in Roseland who filed the lawsuit in the LoAlbo-Melendez case, believes New Jersey could make its antibullying laws even better by implementing an anonymous bullying reporting system that allows students to use their cell phones, easing immunity statutes that make it difficult for parents to sue districts, and imposing criminal penalties for the parents of children who bully their peers.

The task force applauded the state for implementing measures to support inclusive classrooms and diverse student populations. It cited guidelines from the Department of Education to help students meet the needs of transgender students and establish nondiscriminatory policies.

The task force recommended that the state include a policy statement that ”bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance.”

“We must work to ensure all students, especially our most marginalized students, feel safe, valued, welcomed, and treated with dignity and respect across our K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and in our communities,” the task force said in its report.

It also suggested that schools need additional funding and resources to combat bullying. In 2015, the state allocated $1 million to the Bullying Prevention Fund, but no additional funds have been earmarked since then, according to the report.

“We need to combat hurtful and harmful narratives, hate speech, bias and HIB, and address misinformation and disinformation that lead to further harm,” the report said.