Frighteningly close to home... (Score 2, Interesting)

I had a very similar experience all throughout school -- unfortunately, the only thing worse than being the person everyone loves to pick on is being the extremely shy person everyone loves to pick on, so I was never able to stand up for myself the way many other people posting in this thread have. I agree that kids need to be taught how to defend themselves, but at the same time I think parents need to teach them that the things they say can have very real and lasting effects on people. I really envy the people who have found some sort of closure for all the anger that builds up after years of bullying, and I think it's tragic that so many people are graduating high school feeling like they've just escaped from a POW camp. Bullying is something that urgently needs more attention, because I don't remember any of the "zero tolerance" policies being enforced to any sort of degree while I was in school. My 2c, please excuse the rant :) -- Amaris