There is little oversight of the private school industry in Florida. Once they are opened and operating, they are effectively an island unto themselves.

They do not have to be subjected to testing or evaluation. Private schools are not licensed, approved or regulated by the Florida Department of Education.

When a private school closes, what happens to their records, particularly graduation records? Sometimes no one ever knows and they simply vanish. This can be a real problem for job seekers needing to prove their high school diploma and transcripts.

As reported in the Palm Beach Post, Jeffrey Noble, has found out the hard way that the lack of regulation can have very personal repercussions.

Mr. Noble graduated from The Edison Russell School, a private school in Palm Beach Gardens. The school went out of business in 2005. What happened to all the records of all those graduating from The Edison Russell School? Good question. The records have apparently disappeared into thin air.

What happens to those young people who graduate from an unregulated private school that closes without providing its records voluntarily to the state? They will likely have to apply for and obtain their General Education Development Diploma (GED).

Parents of children attending private schools: keep diplomas and obtain a transcript of your child from the school. Young adults attending and graduating from private schools – same advice.

Imagine 12 years after graduation, your employer tells you they can find no evidence of you graduation because you attended a private school that went out of business.

None of us live in a vacuum. We all yearn for positive interaction with other people. During our formidable years we need acceptance by our peers perhaps more than at any time.

Bullying is one of those things that crosses all ethnic, age and gender lines. Statistics vary, but the incidence of male versus female bullying is not all that starkly different. Although boys seem to bully more than girls, girls appear to be catching up. What may be the most startling, though,  is that 60% of girls who were bullied reported that it was a male who was bullying.

Social networking is a phenomenon that did not exist when I went to school. So, if you were bullied, it took a fairly long time before everyone new. Now, the victim of “cyber-bullying” can be immediately further tortured in real time, by untold numbers of their peers.

Imagine receiving text messages, Facebook posts, and tweets a dozen, two dozen,, three dozen a day that bully you in one or another. “You are worthless”; “no one likes you”; “get out of our school”; “you are a complete waste” and many, much worse. Then add to it that rather than a handful of people seeing those statements, it is hundreds or thousands that see them. People you thought to be your friends can no longer afford to be your friend if they are to avoid the cross hairs of those doing the bullying.

When I went to school, if you played team sports, the possibility of getting a “pink belly” by team members was a virtual rite of passage. Likewise, some aggressive act involving the topical pain medication “Heat” was bound to happen.

If you were different, you were probably going to be picked on, pushed around on the playground or ostracized.

Did any of the bullying, either giving or receiving, build character; make me a better person; make the bully a better person; or help to develop skills that would allow us to get along in adulthood?

No, no, no and NO. There was nothing valuable in the experience, nothing enjoyable and certainly nothing to learn from the experience. But teachers, parents and others told us it would.

Today’s bullying, though, has taken on a whole new dimension. No longer do kids have to worry about getting shoved in the locker. They have to worry about being shoved in the locker and a photo of the event being posted on various social media sites for millions to see. Kids have to face the many tweets, posts and texts about how lame they are and how stupid they looked.

How big is the problem of bullying in today’s schools? What can students, parents, schools and all of us do to try and limit bullying? What are the causes of bullying in schools – how is a bully formed?

Here is what one school, Cypress Ranch High School, did to get the word out about how its students felt about bullies and it is well worth the watch: