I just quit a job owned by a bully, who terrorizes all the people who work for her.  She uses their need for employment as an excuse to abuse and mistreat everyone, with no regulating function.  And she thinks herself a superior human being because she works for charities in her spare time.  She thinks her staff loves her when, in fact, every single one (except maybe one idiot) hates her very guts and many were both supportive and envious of me leaving voluntarily.

Bullying is fundamentally an inability to empathize or even sympathize with others’ pain. It is a sociopath.

I find the charges of “statutory rape” interesting. I wonder if the sex was truly consensual or part of an elaborate game to further humiliate her and give even more justification to the mean girls labeling her a “whore”.  And, of course, I can guess the guys participated because it was an opportunity to f*** a pretty girl—pretty enough to date the football star.  I’m speculating of course, but why charge statutory rape otherwise?

I remember being bullied every day in 7th grade. Finally, the bully got bored.  He’s probably forgotten about me, after more than 40 years, but I haven’t forgotten him…

In my middle school the stronger kids usually protected the weaker ones like me from being physically or verbally harassed. If I understood why that was the case I would immediately inform the department of education. Unfortunately I do not have a clue why that was so. Could it have been a kind of “team spirit” deliberately planted in our brains by the teachers?

Leefeller, escape sharing in the responsibility if you can.  You can be the one to cast the first stone.

Administrators and teachers need to be strongly punished for their silence and lack of serious intervention.  The culture of the school perceives this issue too lightly.  Until strong punishment is handed down to all involved the culture will not change.  It’s called tough love with an emphasis on tough.  Place the burden on the bully and persons enabling bullying. 

Why does this continued.  Once again I place much of the blame on administrators who are largely chosen from the ranks of coaches.  Coaches are an insensitive lot who are often brutish.  Get some responsible academics into administration.

Even in agreement, one has a right to find something annoying, especially in presentation. So it is once again, I find one of my glaring pet peeves or even a fetish of sorts, in gerard’s post the use of “we”.

Me, myself and I do not feel we supported or promoted any of the bullying practices posted in gerard’s post, so we is not me!

Hedges as an author of great standing known for his greatness by his followers and peanut gallery fan clubs. On many occasions Hedges has used the proverbial “we” in his articles.  One could say in numbers allegorist to hot dogs at a Yankees game. 

It seems “we”...... as used by gerard may have even eclipsed Hedges and thy froggy in Hedges pocket in only one post?

gerard: surely you are correct to note the connection between personal bullying and the international bullying carried out virtually unnoticed by Americans.  We’ve been innoculated against noticing our own behavior.  We all individually have good intentions, therefore we can do no wrong except perhaps accidentally.  But maybe we are being trained at early ages for membership in this warrior culture, where the persecution of children (and adults, as others have pointed out) is but a microcosm of the larger form of bullying we in which we all participate as silent witnesses.

Fancy this:  The U.S. calls an international moratorium on bullying.  “From this point on, we are pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq, are withdrawing our fleet from all the oceans and closing all foreign bases.  We are ceasing our former policies of badgering weaker countries, forcing them to accept our way of doing business at their expense, and we promise not to invade any countries who do not have as many atomic weapons and hi-tech fighting machines as we. We encourage others to do likewise, and together we will move toward an era of peace, enlightenment and justice like the world has never seen. Yours truly, Uncle Sam.”

NAW’lins commented;

“Bullying is criminal behavior, period. If it was adults doing this to another, they would go to jail.”

Actually adults do this kind of behavior, though with a slight difference. Though I was unaware of it until recently, but it seems workplace bullying is commonplace and prevalent.

It seems managers or other workers bully for reasons of entertainment to substantiating power and fear of others competition, plus other small minded reasons.  It seems the only recourse for victims of workplace bullying is to quit and move on, sounds familiar?

So sending adult bullies to jail is not happening, FYI, there is a website which address’s workplace bullying.

It’s about time this behavior received some needed attention. It’s gone on too long and become too prevalent, and has ruined the lives of too many kids. School officials have looked the other way for far too long, claiming it’s not their responsibility or that it’s some sort of “rite of passage.” The tormentors feel they are above being punished for their behavior, and this prosecution will change that attitude.

Two things will be accomplished by this: One, the little pricks who did this to Phoebe Prince will be taken out of play. Two, with any luck, the worst of the bunch will be placed in an institution where they will find out exactly how much fun it is to be on the other end of the bullying. These arrogant little cretins need to find out that bullying has ramifications for everyone involved.

As a bullying survivor, and one who contemplated suicide all through grade school, middle school, and part of high school to escape bullying classmates, I can only hope that someday assault on children will get its perpetrators the criminal treatment they deserve.  My childhood was a living hell, with constant torment ranging from ridicule to physical assault.  How would you like to experience the joy of the “whirlee,” where kids grab you in the bathroom and thrust you head first into the toilet, holding your face in the water while laughing?  How about constantly being told you’re stupid, ugly, etc., and DAILY being physically assaulted in school or on the way to or from school?  It’s a miracle I didn’t kill either myself or them.  I say THROW THE BOOK AT THE BASTARDS—PUT THEM IN JAIL.

A school does not need a law to ban and have
zero tolerance for bulling—JUST THE WILL!

A law is a cop out by insensitive educators(often
bullies) to the incredible damage this behavior
causes the human spirit.

“What are children who bully like?
“Children who bully are often physically strong. They may bully because they like the feeling of power. They may be kids who do things without thinking first and may not follow rules. These boys and girls have not learned to think about the feelings of other people.” (Online advice under “bullying”.)
  When I read this I couldn’t help realizing how “bullying” is also typical of adults in general, and of entire societies and countries. 
  The entire world, including primarily now the U.S.A., needs psychological guidance (or just plain old common sense?) and necessary restraints to stop one of the nastiest and most widespread of human behaviors. In a word, it is despicable for a large, powerful entity to “pick on” a small, powerless entity. Period.

However where were the adults during all this? Seems to me criminal negligence fits them who are supposed to stop bullying not let it go as, ” a right of passage” kind-of-excuse. Would that be allowed in the adult world? No so they too need to bear a certain burden in this too. Why didn’t you mention them Ruth Marcus? Did it slip your mind? Could you please address it right here? We could use your feed back too on this.

I was fortunate, the bullies tended to stay away from me. I wasn’t violent but I was also sure in my stance, to not show fear. Also I started on my own tow work out in the weight room and did fill out with muscle. I think my Asperger‘s* probably frightened them more than that.

Muscular weight is heavier and carries more than the dead weight of fat. Remember that Sampson.

*I only suspect I have if from my reading and self analysis but it could very well have been a factor. I was never beaten up once.

Hulk ... if your old school bully is now both ‘chubby’ and a hundred pounds lighter than you, then you need to lose some weight.

The statutory rape charges are especially troubling, assuming the sex
was consensual.

Isn’t the whole point of statutory-rape legislation the view that the victim is
too young to truly consent?

For parents it is both frustrating and grief-striking to know that one’s child is supposed to be in a completely safe environment and yet be subjected to all kinds of physical and psychological abuse over longs spans of time.  As the article mentioned, we have all been bullied from time to time - and some have even been bullies.  In my own case, my family moved frequently due to our father’s career; so my sister and I were perennial “new kids”; new kids get bullied as some puerile rite of passage.  We were fortunate that the bullying was not abusive enough to cause serious harm; but it was often difficult to go to school anticipating fights and so forth. 
    Ironically, I recently met one of my former childhood bullies at a school awards session; I had not seen the person in nearly 50 years.  I was ecstatic to see that the former unholy terror was a full foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter than I, not to mention balding and chubby.  I believe my ear-to-ear grin gave away my emotions when I re-introduced myself and shook hands. 
    As a parent, my youngest, despite being physically disabled himself, was brutalized daily by a child whose parents refused to administer discipline or physician-recommended medication.  We met with teachers about the abuse and were reassured that our son would be protected; the teachers admitted the bully was “504’d” on the basis of severe mental problems.  A week after our teacher meeting, the bully slammed our son to the pavement and broke his upper leg.  Two major surgeries were required to get our son going again - not to mention costly counseling and daily bouts of begging to get him to return to school.  The school principal and “involved” teachers denied our meeting had ever taken place; no punishment of any kind was meted out; the principal, in fact, kept the bully away from other students during a couple of recesses so that other kids would not verbally or physically retaliate.  Our only recourse was to move our child to a parochial school .... and sue the parents and the former school.  We spent months trying to find an attorney who would take the case against a public school.  After five years, the school covered our court costs but rejected all claims for insurance.  The parents’ homeowners insurance, after years of negotiating, offered $10K - an amount that could not cover the first day in the hospital.  As it turns out, in our State, by law a child is worth less than property.  We did drop our auto insurance since it came from the same company that insured the bully’s home - a small gesture at best.
  P.S.  So much for tort reform that the conservatives constantly clamor for - caps are already built in.