Bullying on Long Island: Schools reported 1,906 incidents in 2024-25. Advocates say the number could be bigger.

A fifth grader at Great Neck's Elizabeth Baker Elementary School had just finished recess when a classmate allegedly sucker-punched him in the face and "violently kicked" him as he lay on the ground.

The 11-year-old Chinese American boy was left bloodied and with a broken front tooth after the June 2025 attack, according to a lawsuit filed by the boy's father. His alleged assailant was a fellow classmate with a history of “violent tendencies” who often targeted Asian students and used racial slurs, according to the suit.

“We're talking about the culmination of repeated racial, ethnic harassment that we know the school knew about and failed to stop,” said Paul Liggieri, the victim's Manhattan-based attorney. The district declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The alleged incident is just one of the many examples of children being cruel to each other on Long Island.

Island school districts reported 1,906 verified bullying, harassment and discrimination incidents in 2024-25 under the New York's Dignity for All Students Act, according to a Newsday analysis of data maintained by the New York State Education Department.

The number of incidents varied widely from district to district, from zero in Port Washington to 180 in Longwood.

While bullying incidents dropped by 26.3% from the year prior, when 2,587 incidents were reported, child advocates said the data fails to show the full scope of the problem. They said many students and parents are not aware they can file formal complaints or are afraid to come forward due to fear of retaliation from the aggressor or school officials, or alienation.

“Bullying is historically underreported," said Joseph Salamone, executive director of The Long Island Coalition Against Bullying.

According to public health organizations, bullying can be detrimental to a student's mental, emotional and physical well-being. Children who are bullied are at a higher risk of depression, anxiety and other health issues.

“There isn't a school district that can escape this issue," said Salamone. "It's happening on a regular basis, and I think that it's obviously an ongoing issue. No school district has been able to figure out on Long Island, New York, the U.S., or globally how to make kids stop being unkind to each other."

Reporting concerns

New York's Dignity for All Students Act, more commonly known as DASA, took effect in 2012. It prohibits discrimination and harassment of students in school, on buses and at school functions. Incidents that occur off school grounds also can fall under DASA.

Local school districts are responsible for investigating any complaints of bullying. By law, they are required to submit to the state only verified incidents that meet a certain threshold.

For the 2024-25 school year, 21 districts on Long Island — about one-sixth — reported no incidents of bullying or harassment. Of those 21, 11 districts have more than 600 students and eight have a population greater than 1,000.

Advocates said districts may sometimes be unable to verify bullying incidents because witnesses are afraid to speak up, potentially undermining a complaint.

Students also may perceive bullying differently and not label it as such, even if the conduct meets the official definition, research has found. Advocates said this also makes tracking incidents imprecise.

Advocates said parents need to learn to spot signs their children are being victimized or, alternatively, are the aggressor. Students need to be taught to identify and report dangerous behavior, without fear of repercussions. This requires building trust within the school community, they said, and developing consistent practices, including holding bullies accountable.

"We want to teach kids how to be resilient and how to defend themselves in a constructive way, but also to have the confidence to know that when they bring something forward, adults will take it seriously," Salamone said.

Creating a 'culture of reporting'

The four Island districts with the highest number of bullying incidents in 2024-25 were Longwood, Great Neck, Oceanside and Syosset. All except Oceanside saw a decrease from the prior year.

Advocates and some district officials argued higher numbers might not mean more bullying is occurring in those districts, but rather that educators are better at identifying and addressing problems that arise.

"Creating and maintaining an environment in which we empower our students, staff, and school community is one of our top priorities and we believe part of what these numbers reflect is that exact school culture," Longwood schools Superintendent Lance Lohman said in a statement. "Staff are trained to identify, document, and report bullying and harassment rather than handle it informally, which is a deliberate part of our approach to student safety and overall well-being."

Incidents of bullying and harassment in Longwood dropped by 32.3% in 2024-25, from 266 the year prior to 180, or 20.5 per every 1,000 students.

The Great Neck district reported 107 incidents, or 16.2 per 1,000 pupils. A spokeswoman for the district said it "takes all matters of student safety very seriously. Our schools are committed to reporting and investigating every instance of bullying and inappropriate behavior to support a safe environment for all students and staff."

Oceanside reported 79 incidents, or 15.3 per 1,000 students. Superintendent Phyllis Harrington said in a statement the district logged more complaints due to "a culture of reporting and careful documentation, not necessarily a higher incidence of bullying." In 2023-24, Oceanside reported 56 incidents.

"We take school climate and student safety very seriously. Our administrators are trained to document and thoroughly investigate every reported concern to determine whether it is substantiated, and we actively encourage students and parents to report concerns so they can be addressed right away," Harrington said.

Syosset reported 71 incidents, or 10.2 per 1,000 students. Superintendent Thomas Rogers said in a statement, "We take school climate very seriously here in Syosset and make extensive efforts to preserve our learning environment, which includes holding students accountable when their behavior puts that wonderful environment at risk."

'I have not felt safe'

In June, about 10 current and former Massapequa students attended a board of education meeting to speak out against harassment they said they experienced or witnessed in the district.

“The problem of bullying in the school district is out of control. It needs to be changed right now,” one student, Skylar, told the board members, adding that she and her friends filed multiple DASA reports. “I have not felt safe going to school,” she said.

Skylar's mother, Megan Lutz, told Newsday her daughter was first bullied in second grade while attending school in another district. Her daughter, now 15, has been harassed, called names and body-shamed, Lutz said. She said Skylar is now at the point where she won't tolerate the taunting and will respond to her bullies, but it has taken a toll.

"It gets to her day in and day out," Lutz said. "She's had a lot of mental health, emotional struggles due to all this and having to constantly stand up for herself day in and day out ... No child should have to do that."

Lutz started the Massapequa Kindness Coalition in October due to concerns that school administrators were not doing enough to address harassment and to "build a kinder, safer community," she said. She said the district's DASA reporting form is difficult to find on its website and alleged school officials have not conveyed it as a resource for families.

According to a district spokeswoman and information reported to the state, Massapequa investigated 35 complaints of bullying, discrimination and harassment in 2024-25 and found 17 to be substantiated.

Superintendent William Brennan said in a statement the district does not tolerate bullying and has bullying prevention and support programs in place. It is consulting with the Long Island Coalition Against Bullying regarding adding more resources, he said.

“Every complaint is carefully reviewed, and investigations are conducted guaranteeing each one receives appropriate attention,” he said.

Brennan said the district's DASA reporting form has been made more accessible and students are advised to submit complaints when they believe a violation has occurred.

Effects of bullying

Being subjected to serious or repetitive bullying has a negative toll on a child's mental, emotional and physical health, research shows. Bullying can lead to self-harm, social and emotional distress and even suicide. It also is linked to depression, anxiety, sleep problems and poorer academic outcomes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It affects every facet of a kid's life," said Dr. Rosemarie Montecalvo, assistant clinical professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Stony Brook Medicine. Warning signs a child is experiencing harassment include panic attacks, headaches, stomachaches and not feeling safe in school or not wanting to attend school, she said.

A 2025 Massapequa high school graduate who is African American said she experienced harassment and racial discrimination during her time in the district. Newsday is withholding her name due to privacy concerns.

Now 19, she said that in eighth grade, another student told her lab partner she needed to return to the plantation. Later that same day, she said the student changed the homepage photo on her Chromebook to George Floyd, a Black man who was killed in Minnesota by a white police officer in 2020.

The student was suspended, a punishment the teen said wasn't sufficient.

In her senior year of high school, she recalled, students would drive by her house and make monkey noises and her house once was egged. The experiences have left a lasting mark, she said.

"It made me realize that what I experienced is far from normal and far from acceptable," she said, adding she is now more alert to microaggressions.

Montecalvo said it's important for adults to model the behavior they expect children to follow, especially in schools and the broader community.

"Sometimes, if there's this bullying dynamic by administrators or teachers — those power dynamics have a huge effect on kids ... A lot of times, [bullying] is being learned from other places, and that is something that really that needs to be addressed," she said.

Bullying involves a power imbalance that can take several forms. It can be verbal or written, online, over the phone, or in person. It can be subtle or overt, including social exclusion, public humiliation or spreading rumors, according to experts.

Montecalvo and others said the person engaging in the bullying behavior also may have mental health issues that need to be addressed.

Advocates said it's important for harassment to be addressed immediately. This requires intervention from school officials, parents and peers, said Danielle Brooks, founder of the Special Kids Advocates Agency in Oceanside.

"Parents blow it off, teachers blow it off, administration blows it off. You know: 'Just ignore him. Just stay away from him. Don't go near him.' Those things don't work when they're really stalking and pursuing you," Brooks said.

Some research has found that a small number of victims of bullying might engage in the same toxic behavior down the road.

A 2019 report by the U.S. Secret Service studied 41 incidents of targeted school violence and found that while bullying was not the sole motivator, 80% of the perpetrators were bullied by classmates.

"Most bullying is not reported," Brooks said. "It goes on for long periods of time until it explodes, usually into something physical — and then everybody pays attention."

Editor's note -- An earlier version of this story inadvertently omitted a statement from the Syosset school district.