Baltimore County Public Schools Hold First Anti-Bullying Day

TOWSON, Md. (WJZ)—Those who research school violence say by the time a kid leaves middle school, there is a 90 percent chance they have been bullied. In recent years, school districts have beefed up efforts to change the culture.

Mike Schuh reports Baltimore County schools held Friday what will be an annual campaign.

Ask any student or parent: bullying peaks in middle school.

"I've seen kids in this school get bullied, and I don't think it's right," said Kaeviya Butler, a seventh-grader at Lansdowne Middle School.

"This is probably one of the most important years in your educational career," said Dallas Dance, BCPS superintendent.

The Baltimore County School superintendent challenged all his students to do more than talk about bullying and try to do something about it.

This is one of the answers: a bracelet that says "#TeamNoBullying."

"Kaeviya Butler came up with the slogan 'team no bullying,' and all of you have them on right now. I have mine on. Show your wristbands," Dance said at the kickoff rally.

Butler's mom couldn't be prouder.

"And she was so excited about this thing, 'Team No Bullying, Team No Bullying.' She just wants to do good, and she don't want to see no one suffer. And I shared with her my experiences in middle school being bullied. It still exists, and it's just not right," said Shetia Lee, mom.

Now, this is to become an annual anti-bullying campaign in county schools.

"I think parents, teachers, students are all saying this is unacceptable," said Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz.

No one knows if these awareness campaigns work. But with surveys showing most students are bullied, awareness is the first step toward a kinder, healthier school environment.

Those wristbands were distributed Friday to 80,000 students.