Copious weed distribution would help this cause.

Trying is the operative word. Forget the lies. America is a pack society. We run in packs. We kill in packs. Our only reason for existence is to secure and maintain our position in our pack. That is survival in a society of killers.

Bullying is how you show those who are weaker "their place" - at home, at school, at church, and in the workplace. It is always accomplished through violence - verbal, emotional, physical. It is supported universally by the actions of teachers, coaches, counselors, and principals. If you are "weak" you are supposed to go away and die. Only Killers prosper in the pack. It is the foundation of our American Slave Empire.

Peter Yarrow? In a school, they would catch him in a corridor or bathroom and beat him within an inch of his life - and NOBODY would do anything to help him while he screamed. Because all those who might help already know: Get tough or die.

We didn't get this country by asking politely - we got it by skinning mommies and daddies alive in front of their children, "to teach them their place." We haven't changed by a dime.

mirf59 -- weed is still classed with Heroin - for just that reason. You can't run a society based on Constant War without free-floating rage or bullying - America has so much it exports it.

And yes, bullies are cowards. The best cure is a tire iron across the knee caps and then a quick shot across the back of the skull with the same tire iron. Won't bully anyone again and won't breed any either.

Peace.

Luckylefty, thanks for your good post. Down South I see these bumper stickers that read, "The strength of the wolf is in the pack". What disgusts me is that Americans cavalierly look at bullying as part of growing up. Then when the person that is bullied finally explodes, that person will incur the wrath of society. I have the movie, "Bully". To think that this poor kid who has been terrorized during his growing years, and then given the death penalty (later commuted to life big deal!) for striking back at the bully. America is a bully country, victims be damned.

Thank you for stating the obvious - bullying is as American as apple pie.

Why do you think so many citizens support our 'bullying' the world?

Maybe if the adults around them had done something about it, these kids wouldn't be bringing guns to school for revenge. On the other hand, maybe we geeks should start preemptive actions against potential bullies.

Lucky Lefty: "Peter Yarrow? In a school, they would catch him in a corridor or bathroom and beat him within an inch of his life - and NOBODY would do anything to help him while he screamed. Because all those who might help already know: Get tough or die."

I had the shit beat out of me a couple times in high school. One time simply because I was the next kid that walked into the boys room. Another time, because I was wearing a suit, and simply because I was wearing a suit, I was picked up, heled upside down and given several punches to the head.

I learned. Hit first. Carry a gun. "Fuck with me now and die, asshole." "Hit first" also applies legally. Fuck with me in business and you'll hear damn quick from my attorney and you will PAY. Several years, decades actually, after the boys room incident I had the opportunity to financially crush the kid that did it. He is now destitute. I call him from time to time.

Sadly, bullies beget bullies, and I am a prime example. Bastards. But I will NEVER take another beating, physically, financially, socially, or what have you. I hit first.

-- Kent Shaw

And we should never forget that many victims of bullies, e.g. a Karl Rove, end up as great reservoirs of rage, who are only too willing to serve the interests of the most powerful, predatory, ruthless, and rapacious corporations in order to "get back at the world." As our corporate elites find these abused and hateful minds so useful, do not expect the elites to support turning off the spigot that supplies the tortured minds anytime soon.

in Maryland, even the threat of violence is a felony. but the school administrators there discourage the use of the law to deal with the problem. they also do a lot of whining as to how they're doing their best to improve the schools' wretched scholastic performance. ;o)

This is so great to hear about these anti-bullying programs because these bullies take over governments and their peoples. They start wars of aggression. To nip this thing at the bud, we need to start at the beginning when they are children. Many bullies also have parents who are bullies so the cycle has to be broken. Just think, if all kids grew up respecting each other, there would be no Republican party.

Give students the very same protections that we, as adults enjoy. Assault is assault—a crime. Battery is battery—a crime. Assault & Battery is a double crime. Enforce the law in schools and bullying will vanish. In the earlier grades, put an assault suspect with his or her parents with the assault victim and his or her parents in the same room. Include the witnesses. Have an administrator and/or teacher facilitate the discussion. Have a police officer in uniform come in and listen to witnesses. Then have that officer explain the definitions of assault and battery and future consequences—arrest—if the suspect does it again. Videotape the whole discussion. Show it to the whole school. Enforce the law in the future. "Bullying" (a euphemism for assault and battery) will end, and/or the criminals who do it will be arrested and prosecuted. Again, give students the protections that adults enjoy, including protections against teachers and administrators who hit students as a part of "discipline" which is also assault and battery. See more at www.nospank.net

Happy-think and magic dragons won't fix this problem.

Schools should expel repeat offenders, and to avoid an endless cycle of passing bullies from one school to the next, we need a relatively humane way to isolate habitual bullies from the children they terrorize, either in restricted classrooms, or separate schools.

If a teenager breaks a big window at a car dealership, he or she may very well end up in the juvenile justice system, but if the same little monster beats up a classmate, a day or a week later he or she is probably back in class.

We should take assaults on children as seriously as crimes against adult property, but that would probably require a revolution in the whole American hierarchy of values.

There's already enough anti-bully song and dance on Sesame Street and a million similar programs, and none of it does much good. The least we owe the unfortunate little victims of bullying is a realistic assessment of what needs to be done, even if we can only make a feeble approximation to a solution for the time being.

Peter Yarrow's warm and fuzzy approach is just a distraction from the hard choices required for a serious attack on the epidemic of bullying in the schools.

It wasn't until Columbine anyone cared about bullying. I was tormented every day as a child, and the teachers didn't give a sh**. The therapists tended to think they could solve the problem by trying to get me to live with it, and my parent's abuse. No One can live with constant abuse from all sides and blaming the abused child, as teachers and other authorities do, only instills shame. The problem is that the schools reflect the society they are a part of, and even before reality shows we lived in a country of haves, have nots, and little to no social services. Apart from bullying some schools now have police who terrorize and arrest students for breaking rules as minor as "No running in the halls". The answer is not more punishment and rules. That is largely the problem. In class we memorize without learning and given endless pointless homework to train for a future in repetitive jobs, Bullies are themselves taking the lessons of American life to their obvious conclusion: the powerful win, and those with emotional problems find themselves not only bullied by peers but shamed by teachers and administrators (more powerful than the bullies in the end) or even punished and arrested by police or security guards (the most powerful) who are quick on the trigger and are more likely to have problems with troubled bullied students rather than the bullies who are adept at covering their tracks and gaining alibis (like Jr. Karl Roves). What is needed in schools is what's needed in this country a more communal system all around. Where students learn instead of memorize and do reports of interest instead of endless homework, perhaps a supervised student commune in class not instilling shame but establishing boundaries and goals both academic and social. More authoritarianism won't do anything, neither will hollow propaganda.

I just saw this story on yahoo:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2008-02-12-fla-students_N.htm?se=yahoorefer
It's about a high school that accidentally sent detention notices to every student in the school. The parents talk of how they screamed at their kids and felt bad when they found out that their kids told the truth when they said they didn't do anything wrong. This is the problem in our society. For most of us we are a society of punishments and shame it's only the most agressive who see any rewards why shouldn't bullies seek those rewards. More punishments will only compound the problem, and they won't be practiced in the long run anyway.

Until the Athletic Department is forced to relinquish control of Secondary Schools bullying will continue. The process goes something like this:

College student majors in Phys Ed and minors in History
History teacher is hired because he can coach.
History teacher takes classes at night school taught by a coach. Guaranteed pass...
History teacher gets his Administration Degree
History teacher becomes Asst. Principal.
History teacher becomes Principal
History teacher becomes Superintendent.

Little history is taught but control of schools remain in the hands of conservative coaches and bullying is tolerated. It's the old freaks and jocks wars. Coaches will always side with the jocks, therefore bullying continues. Anyone who is serious about ending bullying must first insure academic control of the schools. This problem is historic and more fundamental than it appears. This is why change has largely not taken place in the public schools.

Wow--what a torrent of anger and bitterness this article has unleashed. As a former public school teacher I believe that Jacob Freeze has the proper solution when he said:

"Schools should expel repeat offenders, and to avoid an endless cycle of passing bullies from one school to the next, we need a relatively humane way to isolate habitual bullies from the children they terrorize, either in restricted classrooms, or separate schools."

*****************

When an education becomes a "privilige" for those who understand how to properly behave instead of an
"inalienable right" that is irrevocable no matter what the person does, then those who "act out" (nicey-nice speak for bullying punks of either gender)will quickly learn (as should we all) that actions have consequences and that there are some mistakes you only get to make once.

I have long believed that if most of these instigators of school violence were put in dayglow orange jumpsuits, given a stick with a nail in one end and a giant trash bag in the other and put on an interstate right-of-way to clean up trash for 8 hours a day over a few weeks they might realize that there are worse things than having to go to school.

Doom n Gloom at 12:39 is correct. I taught in the system for 30 years. There is next to no academic professionalism encouraged from above, except under the guise of 'accountablity' which translates as 'cover my ass so I can keep politicing at others' expense'.

"Schools should expel repeat offenders,"

No, Poet. No. Repeat offenders need to be arrested, charged, tried, convicted and sent to jail. I don't care if they're 12 years old. God, I hate bullies. They screwed up my life and I'm 58 years old. I have absolutely NO RESPECT for authority because authority has always allowed the bullies to prevail. Another poster had it right. It is NOT "bullying". It IS assault and battery.

TheMan says:

"It wasn't until Columbine anyone cared about bullying". A true statement, unfortunately, and much of that sudden "caring" is not about students. It is about administrators, school boards, police departments and insurance companies protecting their jobs and their butts.

America has yet to experience much (other than the 9/11 hijackers) the wave of suicide bombings that is growing in frequency elsewhere. But we will. Islamic radicals promised the 72 virgins and other eternal glories will do some of it.

The formerly bullied who learn from the media grapevine how to exact maximum revenge while ending their own private pain will also do some of it.

Doom n Gloom above is quite correct that we might make a great start on a counter-trend by removing the Athletic Departments from their present control roles in many of our schools. Given our collective worship of sports, however, getting this done is an uphill battle.

The 'bully' in my childhood turned me into the quiet 'helper of the underdog' when I got older. I could see the bullies coming a mile away after I left high school. Bullies leave a swath of damage and in most cases it goes unchecked. Oh yeah, we say things like 'they'll get theirs in the end' or 'what goes around comes around' or 'they'll grow out of it' while lives are ruined and spirits are stifled.

It would have been great news to hear that 'bullying' had been a way of life up until lets say the end of the 70's. Hoping somehow the bullied and broken hearted had found their messiah and that all of the bullshit toughness, that was nothing more than a shield for an abused psyche, would finally be squelched and shown to itself for what it really is. Yet it still thrives today. The bully IS and has ALWAYS been an ignorant pawn of society. Thoughtless and without a mission, the bully's vision can't reach past their next step.

And for the bullied... this is for you:

- I hope you made it through okay, without learning to sneer at other people.

- I hope your wounds have healed and have learned to help others heal.

- I hope you have spoke up for the underdogs while everyone stood around afraid to speak or found it easier to cheer on the bully.

- I hope you found your own path because you saw the way of 'bullshit toughness' simply did not make sense and you finally got to see the bully for what it really is... the real sissy of Life.

- I hope you continue to reach out for those in need of help. It seems the 'bully' is still alive and that the curse we bestowed upon the bully way back when we were scared simply did not work.

And for you 'bullies'... don't forget to breathe.

Earthian, how would your solution work with verbal and emotional bullies?

The bullies who tormented me had a simple strategy when they were confronted by adults: deny, deny, deny. If bullies are confronted in the future with adults who know of their cruelty, I wonder what they will say. In her book "You Can't Say You Can't Play," Vivian Gussin Paley noted that children who were told not to exclude anyone from their games replied that there's no point in playing if you can't choose your playmates. So older children are capable of some kind of moral argument, even though it may be limited by our adult standards.

I wonder what arguments the kids will come up with to justify bullying. Sorry, it's a fantasy of mine.

Maybe yet another song won't help, but Yarrow is right about the culture of put-downs. Recently TV Guide changed its writing style to appeal to the younger generation: it would not just report, it would report with snark. Snark is the way you prove you're nobody's fool, and if I'm not better than a dork, who am I better than?

Unfortunately, this will translate into, if I'm not smarter than those who believe in well-meaning songs, who am I smarter than?

But I'm glad that adults are no longer standing by and expecting the most inept and vulnerable kids to "fight their own battles."