On the afternoon of April 9, 2010, I found myself in a meeting with Kerri Evans, the assistant principal of Pleasant Ridge Middle School, and my son Nicholas. I was there because my son had become a victim of verbal abuse. It was shocking to learn that bullying has become an epidemic in our school system. “Almost 1 in 3 students is involved in bullying” (Hertzog, 2010). In a perfect world, bullying would not exist. Children wouldn't be pushed into lockers or hit in the hallway. Students would not talk about another student behind their back because of their shape, size, race, or religion. In a perfect world this wouldn't have happened, but at that moment in our imperfect world it was happening to my son. The question is: why does it happen and what can we do to stop it? “According to a 2009 federal survey on school crime and safety, 32 percent of middle and high school students said they had been victims of violence during the academic year, up from 14 percent in 2001” (Tyre, 2010) . Bullying was making its way into my home and affecting my life. That's when I realized that bullying was a problem that needed to be stopped. Bullying in schools is escalating and becoming a bigger problem and we must take action to eliminate it. According to the Problem-Oriented Guides to Policing Series: Bullying in Schools “bullying has two key components: repeated harmful acts and an imbalance of power” (Sampson, 2002). Although bullying occurs in many other places, school it is the place where it is most widespread and worrying. In schools, physical bullying is more common among boys. This is because boys are much more aggressive than girls. However, verbal bullying such as gossip is much more common among girls . “Physical bullying… half of paper… a reaction Rachel wrote about. (www.rachelschallenge.org) Bullying is a repeated harmful act that continues to affect millions of students every year who is the target of bullying; anyone can be a victim. There may not always be signs of physical harm during these attacks, but our children always suffer emotional harm. Educating students, teachers and parents seems to be the only viable solution to this problem. There are many organizations that can educate schools about this topic, but for it to work, people need to care. Maybe one day, when enough people realize that this problem won't go away without their help, we can eliminate bullying from our schools. In a perfect world there would be no bullying, but if you could ask Rachel Scott she would tell you that we don't live in a perfect world, just a world full of hope.