Interesting topic. Bullying in schools is under estimated. I know that after all the school shootings we had over here a few years ago, it was found that bullying was a direct factor in the motive for the shootings. Years of it can have a horrible effect on kids, especially if they aren’t really strong willed to begin with. Kids are cruel, and school officials and teachers are too quick to turn their heads or pass it off as playground antics. Its the lazy and easy attitude to take. And when its not dealt with properly at the 5 year old level, by the time those kids get to be 15 its out of control, and even the teachers are afraid of or intimidated by them.
Seth was getting picked on by someone on the school bus about 2 years ago. The kid was 2 years older, but not any bigger… Seth is a big boy for his age… gotta love genetics. He’d come home crying, and it got to the point where I had to drive him to school. I tried the whole chain of command crap… first talked with the bus driver (no changes), then I went to the principals office to file a complaint (nothing done their either), so then I called the manager of the bus garage and complained to him too (he’s someone I know personally). Seth and the other kid were called in for a meeting, and supposedly had agreed to be friends. HA HA HA. The kid started it all over the next day, so Seth popped him in the face and gave him a black eye. Seth is a very passive child, has very little tendencies for violence, so he must have just snapped. I’m not one to encourage that, but I have to say, I was proud of him for standing up for himself. He tried to deal with it the proper way and it didn’t work… so he did what he had to do… and its never happened since.
I don’t think there are many people who can say they made it all the way through school without being bullied at some point. It’s way too common. It was something I lived through every day that I went to school… so I won’t put up with it with my own kids. I never had the nerve to fight back… at least mine do.