Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online

On Twitter:

@tbo_factfinders

Follow @tbo_factfinders

Numbers tell the story, and we’ve got your numbers.
The News Center work group known as the Data Circle is your guide through the world of what counts. And what can be counted.
We’ll find the figures and show the patterns that explain life here in Tampa Bay-from amusement parks to zoo animals, with government salaries and big water users in between.
If it’s facts you want, we’ll find them for you. Shoot us an email.

Editors

Dennis Joyce

Joyce joined The Tampa Tribune as senior editor for metro in 2005 and later helped launch TBO.com’s continuous news desk. He has worked as an editor and reporter in Arizona, Kentucky, Virginia, Idaho and Stuart, Fla. Email

Jeff Scullin

Scullin has worked for The Tampa Tribune since 2005, directing news coverage in Pasco County and serving as the paper’s Sunday editor. He has worked as an editor and reporter in Lakeland, Sarasota, North Carolina and California. Email

Producer:
Janine Dorsey

Researcher:
Buddy Jaudon

Reporters:
Shannon Behnken
Mark Douglas
Rich Mullins
Courtney Cairns Pastor
Lindsay Peterson
Michele Sager
Michael Sasso
Kevin Wiatrowski

News Blog Search

Advanced Search

Most Recent Entries

Monthly Archives

Fact Finder page | Follow us on Twitter
Ask a question

Latest bullying complaints show dark side of campus life

Posted Jul 27, 2010 by Dennis Joyce

Updated Jul 27, 2010 at 09:18 AM

The Hillsborough school district has provided us, in timely fashion I might add, the latest information we requested on school bullying complaints for the 2009-2010 school year – the first year the district solicited anonymous complaints online.

The latest information covers much of the second semester, so we added it this week to our existing database.

We’re still waiting for word on how many of the more recent complaints have been verified as bullying incidents under state and local guidelines.

In the first semester, 41 of 199 were verified. No arrests resulted.

You can search the year’s worth of complaints by clicking here, but be warned: Some of the descriptions are pretty raw.

You can also click here to read a story from March and click here for an update in June on what the complaints show us about life on campus. Both stories, and the comprehensive database itself, are the work of education writer Sherri Ackerman.

Most of the latest batch of complaints, as before, come from middle and elementary schools. Few came from high schools.

Here are some highlights from the second semester:

Hillsborough High

“Friend was being bullied because he played his Nintendo DS during lunch and was being pushed around and shoved by seniors and you can tell his feelings were hurt.”

Coleman Middle

“Victim was knuckle-punched in the back of the head. Today after lunch was kicked in the genitals which caused him to collapse to the ground. The bullies then “high-fived” over him as he was lying on the ground. He suffers verbal abuse daily, has had his head banged against a concrete wall, books knocked out of his arms and his hat thrown into a dirty toilet bowl.”

Turkey Creek Middle

“He bullies me everyday and calls me names and hits me occasionally.”

Click here to file a bullying complaint with Hillsborough schools.