La High Schoolers Lead Nation in Alcohol Use and Cyberbullying
“Indicators of School Crime and Safety:2019,” was released Wednesday from the National Center for Education Statistics with input from the federal justice and education departments. The information collected was during the 2017-2018 school year. According to WDSU, those statistics show that Louisiana public high school students lead the nation with alcohol use. The information released shows that a third of 9th through 12th-grade students said they drank alcohol within the past 30 days.
Louisiana was also reported to have the highest rate of cyberbullying, with 21.3% of its high school students saying they had been targeted on social media, email, chat rooms, or other electronic formats. Often, cyberbullying is connected to bullying at school.
The co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, Justin Patchin, says it’s important for parents to talk to their kids about cyberbullying and opening up the line of communication. He says children may not feel comfortable going to their parents with a cyberbullying situation out of fear that the parent may take the technology away.
For information and resources on cyberbullying go to cyberbullying.org.