Nearly one in three American students is bullied, according to government statistics.

Nearly one in three American students is bullied, according to government statistics. But the numbers are even higher for students in one racial group: Asian-Americans. A recent study says more than half of all Asian-American students are victims of bullying.

According to a UCLA study, 54 percent of Asian-American students report being the victims of bullies. That’s compared to 31.3 percent of whites, 38.4 percent of blacks and 34.3 percent of Hispanic students.

It’s a nationwide problem. Tuan Nguyen, the director of the youth development program at Asian-American Family Services in Houston, says he talk to kids who complain about bullying, and it’s not isolated to one school nor one school district.

Nguyen says the kids are targeted because they’re different and because they’re afraid to complain.

“They’re refugee families. They come from backgrounds where there’s a lot of war, a lot of turmoil, where they couldn’t trust authority, so the best way to survive there is just to keep to yourself and not stir up any trouble,” he said.