CIS of the Nation’s Capital site coordinator Monique Baker is working with students to combat bullying at Cardozo Educational Campus.

“I’ve been called ‘big nose’, they make fun of my curly hair, and I get bullied for my accent. They call my language stupid. I get bullied for my skin color all the time, they say my skin is too Black. I don’t know what that means, but it hurts me,” Janet, a seventh grader at Cardozo Education Campus in Washington, DC, says of her experience with bullies, an example of the persistent problem facing youth across the country.

When research nonprofit YouthTruth reported that bullying had risen in communities across the country by three percent—seven percent for students of color—since 2016, outlets like The 74 grappled with why this extensively addressed issue was not only failing to improve but appeared to be worsening.  While some question whether political tribalism is contributing to  the vitriol in today’s cultural landscape, there’s evidence that hate incidents, race-based bullying, and cyberbullying are on the rise in schools around the country.

Communities In Schools of the Nation’s Capital site coordinator Monique Baker supports students grades six through twelve at Cardozo. “We encounter bullying every day. . . it manifests in a variety of ways, particularly given the developmental age and gender of the students involved.” With the middle schoolers, Monique sees more verbal and physical abuse—demeaning language, threats, name calling—and physical aggression like pushing and kicking. But in high school, the bullying turns relational. Emotional abuse like rumor spreading, ostracization, sexual harassment, and cyber bullying via social media where kids “expose” secrets, illicit photos, and gossipy text message screen-shots.