Montgomery school officials are troubled that a high percentage of students and teachers say bullying is a problem at schools where no incidents have been officially reported. At Montgomery Village Middle School, 72 percent of students and 82 percent of teachers agreed in a schools survey that “In this school, students bullying other students is a problem” — yet zero bullying incidents were reported, let alone confirmed.

According to the official incident reports, 18 out of 38 middle schools and 16 out of 26 high schools were bully-free in the 2009-2010 school year. But at least one-third of students said bullying was a problem at every one of those secondary schools but Thomas Edison, a vocational high school with a high special-needs population. At all but two of those middle schools, more than half of students agreed that bullying was a school problem.