joining the conversation is jacob, at wheatley student. he caught our eye because the study ranked him as one of the students that most often tries to stop bullying in his high school. and sean feeney, wheatley's principal and the co-author of this the study robert faris and rosalyn weissman. >> i want to stress your school takes this problem seriously and is one of the top-ranked schools in the country. were you surprised by some of the results? >> i was surprised somewhat. i have worked in a number of different schools in a number of different social and cultural context overseas and in the city, and what i found in my experience with kids is that kids are kids are kids are kids. and unfortunately, these dynamics occur in all places. that's not to excuse it or tolerate it. but you can't be a high school principal and not acknowledge and recognize problems such as drugs, alcohol, sex and bullying. these are all issues, many of which are tied into the issue of self-esteem and sense of self which is something that's developing in high schoo

we'll talk to the principal at wheatley. plus, in minnesota, teachers barred from talking about homosexuality. coming up, we'll talk to some students in that school and in that district who say the policy creates a dangerous, even toxic environment where they are harassed routinely. >> you get shoved. and you feel like -- just that you're a piece of garbage that they can just throw away. >> a piece of garbage they can throw away. "bullying: it stops here." we'll be back in a minute. can i help you? yeah, can i get a full-sized car? forfor convertibles, please stepress star one.ing menu. i didn't catch that. to speak to a representative, please say representative now. representative. goodbye! you don't like automated customer service, and neither do we. that's why, unlike other cards, no matter when you call chase sapphire preferred, you immediately get a person not a prompt. chase sapphire preferred. a card of a different color. (phone ringing) chase sapphire preferred, this is julie in springfield. woman: saving for our chi

joining us now are two teens from wheatley. bridget, a junior, was rated by the research in being in the top 5% of victims and in the top 20% of the aggressors. and josh, a senior rate the as the 5% of victims and also the top 5% of aggressors. we're also joined by the study's author, robert faris. kelly ripa is also in the audience with us, mom of three. bridget, you say everybody is a bully at one time or another and everybody is a victim. what to you mean? >> either you -- there's the obvious bully that picks on someone else and is like what that video showed. there can be a physical bully. there can be a emotional bully that attacks whether it's behind a computer or if it's just you two. it doesn't always have to be i'm going to punch you in the face. but threatening is bullying or you can bully yourself. it's not going to go away. it stays with you. >> it's interesting, bob. the study was eye opening. we picked wheatley because it's an excellent school that takes the problem seriously. the results are very similar to schoo

. >> reporter: bridget is a junior at the wheatley school on long island, new york. high schools in the entire nation where everyone graduates and 99% of kids go on to college. but like most schools it has a bullying problem. is this a problem? is bullying a problem? >> yes. >> definitely. >> they physically abused me, they mentally abused me, emotionally abused me. i'll admit i had thoughts of suicide in ninth grade. >> reporter: "360" teamed up with a group of sociologists for a six-month pilot study at the wheatley school. find out the prevalence of bullying and find out why it happens. the results stunned all ourself. but first, how we got them. sociologist robert faris and diane felmlee designed the pilot study surveying kids throughout the semester. they were asked 28 specific questions like did a student at your school pick on you or do something mean to you. did you pick on or do something mean to another student in your school. >> we want you to be as honest as possible. >> reporter: kids were given a roster of the entire school where every student had an i.

we'll talk to the principal at wheatley. plus, in minnesota, teachers barred from talking about homosexuality. coming up, we'll talk to some students in that school and in that district who say the policy creates a dangerous, even toxic environment where they are harassed routinely. >> you get shoved. and you feel like -- just that you're a piece of garbage that they can just throw away. >> a piece of garbage they can throw away. "bullying: it stops here." we'll be back in a minute. ♪ [ female announcer ] the road is not exactly a place of intelligence. highway maintenance is underfunded, costing drivers $67 billion a year, and countless tires. which drivers never actually check because they're busy, checking email. this is why we engineered a car that makes 2,000 decisions every second. the new audi a6 is here. the road is now an intelligent place. ♪ i just signed the whole family up for unlimited mobile to mobile minutes. you're kidding. no. where's that money coming from, steve? did it even cross your mind to ask your wif

. >> reporter: the wheatley school, one of the top ranked schools in the nation has a bullying problem>> calling me gay, faggot, dumbass. it can be hurtful. >> bad things happen. whether you cut or kill yourself, you develop an eating disorder. it's obsessive. it becomes obsessive. >> they physically and mentally and emotionally abused me and i'll admit i had thoughts of suicide in ninth grade. >> 360 teamed up with sociologist robert ferris and diane felt willly y to see how serious the issue is here at wheatley. why kids bully and how to stop the problem. 700 students took a survey four times over the semester. what we discovered was shocking. 56% of all students had engaged in aggressive behavior, been victimized by bullies or both. and out of all incidents 80% were never reported to an adult. perhaps more alarming to parents -- >> in the survey 74% of students said they don't think that telling their parents about an understand dent would be helpful. does that surprise you? >> no. >> most people say that telling your parents -- parents will most likely say just ignore it. you can't

. >> reporter: the wheatley school, one of the top ranked schools in the nation, has a bullying problems, those names can be hurtful. >> whether you start cutting yourself, you kill yourself, you develop like an eating disorder. it becomes obsessive. >> they physically abused me, mentally abused me, emotionally abused me. i'll admit i had thoughts of suicide. >> reporter: "360" teamed up with robert faris and diane fellney to observe the kids at wheatley, why kids bully. in this study more than 700 students took a scientifically designed survey four different times the over the semester. what we discovered was shocking. 56% of all students had engaged in aggressive behavior, been victimized by bullies or both. out of all incidents more than 80% were never reported to an adult. perhaps even more alarming to parents in this survey, 74% of students said they don't think that telling their parents about an incident would be helpful. does that surprise you? >> no. >> reporter: doesn't surprise you. >> no. >> reporter: why? >> most people say that telling your parents, parents will most likel

. >> like a lot of schools in america, the wheatley school has a bullying problem. >> they physicallynd i admit i had thoughts of suicides in ninth grade. >> reporter: more than 700 students in wheatley were asked specific questions about aggress in their school. like did a student at your school pick on you or do something mean to them? did you pick on someone or do something mean? the results were eye-opening. a key finding? bullies, what researchers called aggressors, are often also victims. do you think somebody is an aggressor and somebody is a victim, or do you think it crosses over? >> everyone is a bully and everyone is a victim. >> reporter: everyone is a bully. >> like you've bullied, i've bullied. whether you know it or not, you've bullied someone. >> reporter: the study also shows why kids bully. sociologist robert ferris calls it social combat, using aggressive, bullying behavior to climb the social ladder. >> it's pretty much a race to the top. by getting to the top, you view yourself, i'm one of the important people of your school. that's the reason bullying occurs. >>

teamed up with sociologist robert faris and diane feltly to see how serious the issue is here at wheatley700 students took a survey four times over the semester. what we discovered was shocking. 56% of all students had engaged in aggressive behavior, been victimized by bullies or both. and out of all incidents 80% were never reported to an adult. perhaps more alarming to parents -- >> in the survey 74% of students said they don't think that telling their parents about an understand dent would be helpful. does that surprise you? >> no. >> most people say that telling your parents -- parents will most likely say just ignore it. you can't ignore it. it will stick to you and you will think about it at the end of the day. >> after you get bullied you internalize it. i think of my day over and over and what everyone said about me and you start to think about it yourself. >> they have anti-bullying programs from kindergarten to 12th grade. the principal feeney? >> it breaks my heart when they keep that inside and we're not aware of it. our goal, of course, is to try to reach our students. we're

. >> reporter: wheatley school, one of the top-ranked high school notice nation, has a bullying probleman be hurtful. >> starts to build up, bad things start to happen, whether you start cutting yourself, you kill yourself, you develop, like, an eating disorder it is obsessive, it becomes obsessive. >> physically abuse me, mentally abuse me, i had thoughts of suicide in ninth grade. >> the seniors -- >> reporter: "360" teamed one robert farris and diane finley to investigate how severe the issue is at wheatley, why kids bully and how that knowledge could help end the problem. in this pilot study, more than 700 students took a scientifically designed survey four separate times over the sell mers what happened we discovered was shocking. 56% of all student also engaged in aggressive behavior, been victimized by bullies or both. and the out of all incidents, more than 80% were never reported to an adult. perhaps even more alarming to parents, in this survey, 74% of students say they had don't think that telling their parents about an incident would be helpful. choose surprise you? >> no. >

based on a much larger study you had done in a very different area, different kinds of schools than wheatleyresults were similar. >> that's amazing to me. i thought these were general processes, but so great to see what we are talking about is something that's not typical of one community or one type of school. that this is a very common behavior that we see in rural north carolina. we see it in rich, affluent suburbs of long island. so it means that we do need to be having a national conversation about it. >> bob and rachel, thanks. >>> this special study is part of our joint effort with facebook and the cartoon network and time incorporated. be sure to join anderson for an encore presentation of his town hall, bullying, it stops here. that's at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. eastern. >>> steve jobs, the official cause of death. >>> let's get the latest on some other important stories. isha sesay joins us with a bulletin. >> john, we now have the final cause of death for apple founder steve jobs. public health officials in california report that jobs died of a respiratory failure brought on by a