Rhea Carlisle has grown up in an era when the phrase “mean girls” is part of the lexicon and anti-bullying discussions are part of school routine.

The 16-year-old Toronto student is aware of how “girl-on-girl hate,” as she calls it, can be acted out through cliques, playground bullies or social media mocking. She remembers her own distress at being excluded by other girls in elementary school, and how the dynamics improved after her teacher raised the issue of kids leaving other kids out in class the next day, without naming names.

“It was always something that was talked about,” says Rhea, a Grade 11 student at Notre Dame High School and one of two student trustees at the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

“I don’t think bullying is taboo anymore,” adds the teen, who says she hasn’t experienced it at her all-girls high school.

So she was surprised to learn that while overall suspensions have declined at Toronto Catholic schools over the past five years, one trouble spot has emerged: elementary school girls.

Last year, suspensions for girls up to Grade 8 rose for the second year and particularly among tweens, according to the board’s latest safe schools report, sparking concerns that the insidious “mean girl” phenomenon is still going strong despite years of anti-bullying programs.

In 2015-2016, there were 196 suspensions among elementary school girls, says the report, presented at a Catholic board meeting last week. That’s 38 more than in the 2014-2015 school year and 68 more than the previous year.

School days lost to suspension among those girls increased by 96 days to 411 days. While boys receive a significantly higher number of suspensions — with 785 last year and 1,787 days lost to suspension — those numbers were down from a year earlier.

The number of girls suspended two or more times last year also increased by 29 from 2014-2015, and notices of suspensions climbed for the third straight year, up by 63 to 262. While some of those did not result in actual suspensions, they may be red flags for worrying behaviour.

In the context of 60,000 elementary school students in the Catholic board, of whom roughly half are female, “it’s not huge but it’s a concern,” said Vincent Burzotta, superintendent of safe schools.

“We base our action plans on trends, so if there’s a trend that girls year over year are increasing in suspensions then we have to respond,” he said.

The report also included student surveys that highlighted the differences in the ways boys and girls act out with peers. Significantly more girls than boys at both elementary and secondary levels said they had experienced or witnessed bullying.

Girls reported more incidents of social or online bullying, which are more difficult for adults to notice and monitor, while boys reported higher levels of physical bullying. Bullying is among common reasons for suspension.

“This year has reinforced the notion that girls are becoming more aggressive,” said Burzotta. “We’ve seen that they are engaging more in social, verbal and exclusionary behaviours.”

He said teachers are being armed with more information and strategies on “how to identify mean girls,” cliques and other dynamics that put peers at risk.

“We’re very concerned because that is the age at which social inclusion is everything for these girls,” he said.

Trustee Maria Rizzo called the latest findings about young girls “alarming.”

“If (suspensions) are going up, I’m worried about it. I would really like to explore whether this is a trend and what we can do about it.”

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Trustee Jo-Ann Davis stressed that student surveys show most students feel very safe or safe in school — 95 per cent in elementary schools and 91 per cent in high school, the safe schools report found. But what’s happening among young girls deserves attention, she added.

“How are we ensuring that we’re creating an environment that’s not enabling this kind of behaviour? And what can we do for girls that are finding themselves in the middle of this and want to be getting out of it?”

York University bullying researcher Debra Pepler cautions against drawing definitive conclusions from the numbers, which don’t reveal reasons for suspensions.

“These are a small minority of children rather than any alarming trend,” said Pepler, a professor of psychology at York University and co-director of PrevNet, a network of researchers and organizations aimed at stopping bullying.

It’s possible that as awareness increases, teachers are becoming better attuned to the more covert ways girls act out and bully peers, she said.

However, she also noted that girls’ behaviour tends to escalate to more extreme levels before adults become aware of what’s going on and intervene, whereas boys are more likely to be physical and blatant and draw attention sooner.

So higher rates of female suspension may be a reason to worry about the impact on victims and witnesses leading up to that point, she added.

No similar upward trend of elementary school suspensions among girls has been reported at the Toronto District School Board in the last two years, said spokesperson Ryan Bird. Ministry of Education data for the most recent five years available, ending in 2013-14, shows a steady decline in suspensions of students of both genders. It does not break down male versus female suspensions according to elementary versus secondary levels.

Rhea Carlisle says she hasn’t experienced or witnessed bullying in high school but recalls that often prepubescent and middle school girls “have a lot more insecurity” and struggle to find out where they fit in socially. That can lead to inappropriately targeting other girls, which may be why the numbers are higher for the elementary group, she said.

Rhea said continuing the anti-bullying conversation is a priority for her and fellow student trustee Karina Dubrovskaya this year.

“We are really going to be pushing inclusion and belonging.”