Reply #1: That last paragraph says it all.

[RaleighNCDUer]

"...unless the grown-ups pull them out by the roots, more and more kids will learn how to terrorize.”

When I was a kid, decades ago, when the situation was far better, I was involved in an incident - a little verbal spat got me and another sent to the office, and on the way there the other kid damn near knocked me out. When we did get to the office the VP commended me for 'not fighting back', and I was like 'are you fucking kidding me? I'm 5'6 and a 114 lbs - he's 6'2 and 195 if he's an ounce - he could hold me at arms length and pummel me all day long and I'd never be able to touch him - not fighting back, covering up was ALL I could do.

But he was jock, he was on the football team, and in a small school that meant a whole lot more than Drama Club. So the VP treated it as if we were equally at fault, and that was it.

It was only after that that I figured out how to deal with the bullying - go crazy. I was too small to fight effectively, but if I put all 114 lbs into whaling on the bully they'd remember it - even if they first mopped the sidewalk with me, they left me alone after that. And THAT was all I could do because the teachers either went blind or they approved of the bullies - there was no help coming from them.