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Beshear Appoints 22 Member Anti-Bullying Panel

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has appointed a 22-person committee to study bullying and how to stop it.

The committee members include 11-year-old Morgan Guess of Paducah, who was diagnosed with clinical depression after being bullied as an 8-year-old. The experience prompted Guess and her mother, Susan, to start the Guess Anti-Bullying Foundation.

The Kentucky legislature passed anti-bullying legislation in 2008 that made it a crime to bully someone online and required school districts to have anti-bullying policies.

But Beshear said he appointed the task force because bullying is still a problem in Kentucky schools. The Kentucky Department of Education reported 15,520 incidents of bullying during the 2013 school year, or one incident every four minutes of the school day.