A recent study found an alarming number of bullied students in the U.S. carry weapons to school, WWMT-TV reported.
Within the past year, 20 percent of high school students -- primarily in the lower grades, female and white -- have been bullied, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC).
Additionally, around 250,000 bullied students brought guns, knives, or clubs to school within the last 30 days of the survey being taken.
"They're telling us that there's practically one child in every classroom that is carrying a weapon," said Dr. Andrew Adesman of the Cohen Children's Medical Research Center. "This is a group that's not only traumatized psychologically, and they worry for themselves physically, but they also pose a threat to the rest of the student body."
Researchers found that teens who are bullied at 31 times more likely to come to school armed than those who have not been bullied.
Students more likely to admit to "packing" for school also said they had missed school because they felt unsafe there or on their way, had property stolen or damaged, were threatened or injured with a weapon, or had been in a physical fight, Philly.com said.
Of those who experienced one or more of those factors, 28 percent of them took a weapon to school; for those who reported two or more, nearly two-thirds of them brought a weapon.
"Tragedies like the Columbine High School massacre have alerted educators and the public to the grave potential for premeditated violence not just by bullies, but by their victims as well," Adesman said in a news release. "Our analysis of data collected by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] clearly identifies which victims of bullying are most likely to carry a gun or other weapon to school."
Dr. Lana Schapiro, the study's lead researcher, said more funding should be spent on preventing the growing threat of bullying and resulting school tragedies.
"With estimates of more than 200,000 victims of bullying carrying a weapon to high school, more effective prevention efforts and intervention strategies need to be identified," Schapiro said in the news release. "The greatest focus should not just be on bullies, but on the victims of bullies most likely to carry a weapon and potentially use deadly force if threatened."
More than 15,000 students took part in the survey taken in 2011 and was presented on Sunday at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
