The death of bullied and beaten up school boy Toran Henry, 17, raises public demand for real and proactive change in our school environments. The people who work with young people say this case is not an isolated incident. According to the Youth 2000 survey of 10,000 secondary school students, 1 in 3 students are bullied at least once during the school year. Three percent of all students have even stayed away from school, at least once in a month, because they were afraid of being bullied. New Zealand Aotearoa Adolescent Health and Development (NZAAHD) executive officer Sarah Helm says that the issue of bullying in schools is not new, but needs to be dealt with now. "There have been a number of groups that have been calling for systemic change in schools for a long time now, but they have been disregarded."

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