According to recent studies, a whopping 71% of school-going children report that bullying is a problem at their school. Almost 60% having actually witnessed some kind of bullying happening in front of them with a further 75% of all school-related shootings documented as being a result of bullying at school. These numbers are beyond frightening, and in recent years, school violence, shootings and hectic bullying behavior are issues that are making front page news far too often.

There are five key issues involved in tackling the bullying problem:

1. Where is the violence coming from?

Schools are taking steps to protect students and to gain control of bullying in schools, which as it has come to light, is a much more serious problem than anybody ever realized. School violence is on the rise, and it is a catastrophic combination of socio-economic and harassment issues stemming from both home and school that are contributing factors to a situation that has the potential to spiral out of control.

2. Protecting our kids

Schools have started implementing all sorts of programs across the US, in an effort to bring this horrendous situation under control and to bring down the number from almost 300,000 bullying victims a year to a flat zero. Signs strongly forbidding bullying are becoming a regular sight at schools, libraries, parks, gyms, computer classes, rec rooms and playgrounds. It’s a huge bid to highlight the effects of bullying, helping kids identify bullying behavior and opening up, owning up and reporting it.

3. Learning how to cope

The more awareness there is, the more education there is, the more that schools, parents and kids talk about and address the issues, the quicker change will come about, and the quicker that shocking number will fall. Bullying was never such a visible subject as it is these days, and schools are finally coming to the party, providing resources, support and education to kids of all ages in an attempt to clean up the classrooms and the playgrounds so that they don’t turn into war zones.

4. Where change needs to happen

Instead of kids skipping class and staying home, just to avoid confrontation and violence at school, there needs to be a procedure in place so that kids can feel safe by reporting the issues at hand. Kids who bully need serious support, help, and rehabilitation to ensure that they don’t evolve from the aggressive playground bully into a violent criminal offender as an adult; just as much as the victims of bullies need support, counseling and rehabilitation themselves. Families need to be brought in, communities need to come together, and with the right amount of control, pressure from the right people and support from the authorities, bullies will lose their power forever.

5. The No Bully Zone

With no bully and bully free school zone signs being placed in visible areas where kids and teens spend the majority of their time, they will have an ever present and constant reminder of the serious implications of bullying. This and other interventions are being put into place as part of a movement to bring the humiliation, pain and suffering to an end before it gets any worse.