I think the only way bullying will stop is for people to speak up when they see someone bullying someone. We need to take action the minute we see it.

The teacher just standing there watching what that kid was doing to your brother was nonsense. She should have stopped it immediately.

The good thing is that people are becoming more aware of how dangerous bullying is. Now we all need to do something about it.

I say speak up - and stop the bullies. If they are not stopped they will grow up to be buffoons that push adults around and many of them will become criminals who don't care about others at all. They are already on their way.....imo.

The big problem with bullying is that kids that are being bullied don't speak up and tell that thier being bullied because thier scared of what the person thats bullying them

The problem is very very complex, and no one solution will work. First, there is the problem that children in that age range are still developing mentally and largely their empathy skills. So that's natures problem, and that's not something we can (or maybe should) fix.

There is also that bulling behavior can be a product or a symptom of something in the bullys life, and bullying operates like a stress reliever.

Children being bullied also (and this will likely be controversial with some of you) do need to learn to stick up for themselves. Of course, that's not ALL of the solution, but it will certainly help.

If schools tighten down on bullying, then bullies will simply take it outside of school -- something easily done now. Zero tolerance on anything is rarely a wise choice. However, if an individual whom the bully respects makes a statement about bullying, than that can have very good results.

In short, we as a society have our work cut out for us.

Yes we need. to do more to prevent Bullying. I also belive that if we could go back to the old days when parents could spank thier childern everytime they did something. wrong or misbaved in school. Then maybe the bullying would end. Kids today think that they can do what ever they want If you spank your kids then they run to school and tell my parents are abusing me. Then the school Calls Cps. and they do it before calling the parents to see if the child is really being abused.

I don't know that spanking is the answer, I would argue the issue is larger than forms of punishment. I think it's more along the lines of dual income families leaving little time and energy to take care of the children. As a result, they are often raised by TV and lack of parental oversight.

Thats true most kids have parents that don't take in interest in thier childs behavior I am not saying that all parents are this way but some are.

I know a kid who was also short, about 5-1 in high school. However, instead of cowering, he fought back. If someone pushed him, they learned they were in for a fight. They then avoided him. He now has a major position in the U.S. army, has been decorated many times, and is a hero.

I was talking to my son, who is taller (now grown) and was surprised when he said that heand was in about 10 fights. Not fighting and getting pushed around is by far the biggest mistake anyone can make. Hoping that someone else will help is like hoping if you are out of work, someone will leave 5,000 at your doorstep, instead of actively looking for a job

If you do make the commitment to fight, don't be quickly intimidated even if the person is bigger and is winning. Make the commitment to do what you can. Bite him and maintain your bite. Learn self-defense. Your head is a good weapon, and moving it down quickly on the bridge of someone's nose can do some reasonable damage. Get a good hard sole of your shoe and kick the soft bones in the middle of the foot.

Have someone with experience teach you how to fight. Be careful of judo and karate classes; they frequently just teach bullies how to be more effective bullies and earn money fo rthe school.

Just make sure the parents of none of your bullies are cops, lawyers, or socially connected in any way as they will sue your parents off the map if you so much as touch their precious little monsters.

Seriously, what decade is this? Bullies have guns now or have you not read the news in 30 years?

In all seriousness...

There is NO body of research or statistical evidence to support the idea that violent abusers will stop their behavior and start respecting you if you fight back. In reality, retaliation has led to serious escalation and even murder. I doubt Matthew Shephard was just one Aikido class away from surviving the attack that ended his life. The only way to stop or even limit the damage of bullying is for parents to teach their kids that bullying is never acceptable and to enforce it consistently -- outside the home, it is the responsibility of authorities to intervene.

"children in that age range are still developing mentally and largely their empathy skills"
Hence the role of parents in disciplining their children and teaching morals by rote until the children are mature enough to process these concepts on their own.
When an adult refuses to protect a child from harm at the hands of another person, they are sending the message that the child isn't deserving of protection. This can have devastating effects on a kid's self esteem. They are also sending the equally destructive message that there are no consequences for inflicting cruelty on others, physical or emotional. The adult's complicity becomes part of the bullying.

"There is also that bulling behavior can be a product or a symptom of something in the bullys life, and bullying operates like a stress reliever. "
More likely one or both of the bullying child's parents were/are bullies. The child responds by becoming a bully themselves since this was the relationship modeled to them during their most receptive developmental stages. An equal number of children from similar situations become victims because that's the role they learned to play. This was the case in my own family. As awful as it was to be a victim, I could never have lived with myself if I had become the monster.

By the way, I FOUGHT BACK when I was bullied. That changed nothing whatsoever about the bullies' attitudes about me, it only got the attention of the authorities who then blamed ME by choosing to focus only on my transgression. This is how the Erics and Dylans of the world are created. I believe that the people who tormented them carry some of the responsibility for what they did.

Well I can't say that I was bullied in school although I wasn't popular either. I was sort of in the middle. But I sure have experienced it in the workplace over and over and over. By management and coworkers who know exactly what they are doing. And management has never acknowledged the bullying in my experience. The denial and lies are stunning to witness. Any coworkers with ethics and morale are scared into submission by the bullying coworkers and bullying management. Anyone with ethic or morale is scared to make a peep about the blatantly obvious goings-on. HR could care less and backs management. The only way to put a stop to it is legislation. Does anyone think white people collectively would have ever left black people alone to thrive if it weren't for laws? That sexual harrassment would have vanished into thin air eventually on its own out of people's suddenly deepened sense of morality? That neighbors and strangers wouldn't regularly burglurize your possessions if there weren't laws against it? Its only laws and the punishments that come with breaking them that keep people in order. The whole reason for law is to reign in the primitive barbaric nature that is still going strong in humans. Ethics and morale carry very little weight on their own. They need the muscle of law behind them to be practiced. Meanwhile, please have a look at this website and if your state is one that currently has a bill introduced, please use the EZ letter tool to express your support. And then please write at least a sentence or two to your local assemblyperson (easy to locate using links from the site) to express your support for a Healthy Workplace Bill. The website is www.healthyworkplacebill.org

Oh boy do I get the bullying in the work place. I never had access to a computer until 4 hours before a presentation. I had to learn the OS, the new software, and the guy (a peer) who set it up did it so it would crash on me losing all my work.
This jerk knows my spouse and went to him behind my back to gossip about how "poorly" I handled the situation. (Guess I was pretty cross at one point and asked him to leave me alone so I could think.)

I had to quit. There is no way a job is worth ruined marriage.

I was always the shortest kid in school and I learned to embrace it. I used to hate it when people would say to me "you're so short!" There were times when I got offended but I learned how to ignore by looking at the person then look away and started talking to another person as if that person didn't matter to me. Why give them the time of day right? And there were also those times when just when they thought I wouldn't say something I would, and I made sure I got my message straight to the point. sometimes you have to stoop down to their level because obviously they couldn't step to yours. I can go on and on with how I dealt with bullies. There are those worth ignoring and a few that is worth standing up for. It's all about timing I think. if it happens, just remember not to let it get out of hand. I like to put a stop right when it happens so they know I don't tolerate their bull%@#$.