Is bullying or harassment common at prep schools - single sex or co-ed?
Not a prep school student yet but I imagine that the community there would be the same community you witness at high school. Don’t worry too much about this though, I’m sure you can fight back if you do experience it.
Also as my comment may not be as helpful I think some prep students may be able to relieve your worries instead 
Bullying is not at all tolerated at DSs School. He has seen a kid removed and another put on final notice (no leadership positions for his BS career and one strike you are out) for bullying. I’m sure other schools may be different in their policies, but these are small communities where everyone has to live together, so I don’t think it is as easy for folks to turn a blind eye.
Does it happen? Yes. Teenagers are teenagers regardless of where they go to school. Is it tolerated? Generally not, but how a school deals with the issue varies from school to school.
The whole “not tolerated” thing is hard to pin down. The kid who is being bullied would have to speak up in order for it “not to be tolerated.” But many know that doing so will only ramp up the bullying.
The reality is that boarding schools are probably no better or worse than other schools. Absolutely not a problem for most kids, but I would imagine some get a hard time. I wish I had some idea of how to make it stop. But the availability of cell phones and the internet make it insidious.
Agreed.
I actually think several kids spoke up at DS’s school when they saw what was happening…so it does not just rest on the one being bullied. And I agree each school handles it differently, but those that empower kids to speak up for them and their classmates probably have a much lower incidence.
And…like anything else…how the school deals with it sends a strong message.
One parent explained to me that different types of bullying, including being systematically excluded, can be more complex or multidimensional at BS because there is no escape from it at the end of the day. Especially difficult if this involves a roommate. In a local school, you pick up your kid or the kid drives home and has at least som respite in your house. So, I do worry about how these situations play out at BS and how much to expect dorm parents to get involved.
@Golfgr8 @buuzn03 @skieurope @bjkmom @missinghome21 thank you! Do you know if there are differences between bullying in co-ed schools and single sex schools? Eg. drama in girl schools?
I obviously have no personal experience with all-girls schools. However, I have watched Mean Girls 
so I would say the drama exists in single sex institutions as well.
Sorry, no experience with girls’ schools (though I haven’t heard of any bullying from my friends whose daughters attend girls’ schools), but my son hasn’t seen it at his all-boys’ school. As the youngest on his fall varsity team, he was “the freshman” and was treated as such – carrying the water bottles and the bag of balls and doing other lowly tasks – but I think that’s par for the course. I have heard of a hazing-type incident at another all boys’ school within the past few years that resulted in a boy being expelled, which I found troubling.
There have been threads on this board about some very unfortunate bullying experiences. It’s worth exploring and asking questions about the schools’ processes and what resources are available to kids experiencing bullying or mistreatment.
My daughter has said from the the 2nd month at BS to now that the drama she’s been witness to at her all-girls school is nothing compared to drama from her home school! She was amazed at how much less drama there is in an all-girls environment. There isn’t so much bullying as the occasional cattiness that girls have towards one another, but again, much less than back home.
@RuralAmerica thank you! So should I be worried about bullying if I go to an all-girls school?
@mackenzie1002 I wouldn’t be worried much about bullying.
@RuralAmerica okay good to know, thanks!