More than 17% of the students in six county school districts who participated in a 2019 state survey said they had been bullied through texting or social media.

That percentage is more than the statewide figure of 14%, but also reflects a decline from 23.5% in 2017 and 20.3% in 2013.

The results came from students in grades, six, eight, 10 and 12 who took part in the 2019 Pennsylvania Youth Survey, conducted in each county biennially in the fall of odd numbered years since 1989. The survey is funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Students in the Butler Area, Karns City Area, Moniteau, Seneca Valley, Slippery Rock Area and South Butler County school districts participated in the 2019 Butler County survey.

“Cyberbullying has been one of the most requested presentations we give to schools and youth organizations,” said state Trooper Jim Long, the public information and community service officer for the Butler barracks.

The percentage of county students who reported bullying through texting or social media exceeded the statewide percentages in all four grades.

The survey results show the percentage of 12th graders who reported bullying through texting or social media varied from 15.5% in 2013 and 19.7% in 2017 to 16.7% in 2019, when the state total was 12.1%. In the 10th grade, the percentages are 22.1 in 2013, 23.2 in 2017 and 18.3 in 2019, when the state total was 14.9.

Eighth grade results show 17.9% in 2013, 26.7% in 2017 and 16.4% in 2019, when the state total was 15%. In the sixth grade, the percentages are 26.3, 19.6 and 24.9, which exceed the state total of 13.9.

Bullying used to take place on playgrounds, but it now has the potential to occur 24 hours a day through the use of mobile phones and social media, Long said.

Awareness of changes in children's behavior is a better way for parents to find out if their kids are being bullied or doing the bullying, he said.

“Parents know their kids the best. If they're not coming home with a black eye like they used to, they have to figure out why they're acting differently. Be sensitive to changes in behavior. Read your kids. Talk to them if you see something bothering them,” Long said.

Monitoring children's cell phones is less effective.

“Parents can look at phones every day, but kids are a lot more savvy than we are as adults. If they want to hide something, they can, or open a secret social media account,” Long said.

A narrative in the survey report says increased public awareness of electronic or “cyber” bullying is due in part to high profile suicides linked to malicious use of social media services such as Twitter and Facebook. Bullies who operate via text message, social media or the internet can remain virtually anonymous, freeing them from normative social constraints on their behavior.

The modern teen's social sphere is deeply intertwined with texting, social media and the internet. Invaded by bullying behavior, the harassment can feel inescapable, and traditional places of refuge such as the home no longer apply. The resulting isolation from simply “turning off the phone” has the unfortunate effect of further punishing the victim, according to the report.

John Stepansky, a retired trooper who is the Butler Area School District's cybersecurity officer, said the district has been successful in stopping cyberbullying from escalating into physical confrontations by monitoring social media sites.

“We do a lot of manual monitoring of social media. The program has been pretty successful,” Stepansky said.

If a confrontation seem possible, guidance counselors and administrators are notified and they resolve the situation by talking to all students involved as well as their parents or guardians, he said. Police are notified if any criminal activity takes place, he added.

“They address it with the kids to the point they've staved off an incident. That happens frequently,” he said.

Only one case of bullying has been documented during the current school year, but five were recorded last year and two were recorded in 2018. The program started late in 2018. Stepansky said remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic may be affecting the number of incidents this year.

Social media posts from students with self-esteem or depression issues saying they hate themselves or want to kill themselves are more frequent than bullying. The district documented 67 such cases this year and 51 in 2019, Stepansky said.