Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear says the state should define bullying and pay for mental health counselors in public schools to help address it.
The recommendations are the result of a yearlong study by Beshear's Youth Bullying Prevention Task Force. The 26-member committee released its final report on Tuesday.
Kentucky already has 15 laws that address bullying, but none of them defines what bullying is. Beshear said that makes it difficult for school officials to identify bullying and report statistics. In 2013, a survey of by the Kentucky Department of Education found 15,512 incidents of bullying in the 2012-13 school year.
The task force included 11-year-old Morgan Guess of Paducah. Guess started an anti-bullying foundation after she was bullied at school so much that a doctor prescribed her antidepressants.