SAN DIEGO, Calif. – (October 24, 2025) – For many teens, bullying isn’t just another bad day at school, it’s a daily battle. In traditional schools, limited adult supervision can leave students vulnerable, targeted not only for their looks or interests, but for things far beyond their control, like disabilities, housing or food insecurities, or simply for being different. “There is a better way,” said Lindsay Reese, area superintendent Learn4Life a network 80+ of non-classroom-based charter schools. “What works for us is that we offer flexible schedules and one-on-one instruction, so students come in on different days and times, and it has essentially eliminated opportunities for bullying.”
Reese said that many of its students transferred to Learn4Life to escape bullying. Like Valerie G., who was bullied from day one of high school and when the teachers and staff didn’t offer her support from the bullies, she gave up and began failing her classes. “On my first day at Learn4Life I was ready to be judged – it was my defense mechanism,” said Valerie. “But instead, I was greeted by staff who didn’t care about my past or judge me because of my brown skin or the way I looked or my previous school record. All they wanted to do was help me. They helped me get back on track.” Today Valerie is flourishing, taking dual enrollment classes at a community college and plans to go to college and medical school.
A recent survey of by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) shows that 34 percent of students age 12 – 17 reported being bullied in the previous 12 months. Teenagers who were bullied were nearly twice as likely to experience symptoms of anxiety or depression. Students who are repeatedly bullied receive poorer grades and participate less in class discussions. Then they get mislabeled as low achievers because they do not want to speak up in class for fear of getting bullied.
October is Bullying Prevention Month, designed to educate parents about bullying’s negative effects on physical, social, emotional, academic and mental health of their child that may persist into adulthood. A focus is on preventing and responding to instances of bullying.
“We have a strict policy against bullying, and more importantly, we’ve eliminated the structure where bullies thrive,” Reese said. “Plus, we teach students coping and resiliency skills, which help them deal
with life’s ups and downs, and restorative justice to teach youngsters the effects their actions have on other people.”