I fail to see how victimizing someone else is YOUR freedom of expression. There is a very distinct difference between calling someone a name in passing and calling someone a name every single day, pushing them in the halls, spreading nasty rumors, and overall destroying that person in any way possible. You may think you deserve that right, but you're wrong. People deserve to be protected from such abuse, and it IS abuse.

And bullying is not just a normal part of growing up - it's gotten much worse over the years because people are not held accountable. Back in the day if you picked on someone and got your ass handed to you, everyone said you got what you deserved and didn't punish the other kid. Now victims either take the abuse or they try to stand up for themselves and get victimized by the system. It's wrong, and I think anyone who defends it as "kids being kids" is/was either a.) a bully themselves, b.) never suffered from being bullied, or c.) is just too immature to realize there's no place for it.

6:Heat of the moment

This is the relevant one, and to my knowledge I don't think anyone has actually been exonerated on this defence. I'm sure there are cases, but not for bullying, otherwise it would be rather common for bullies to be murdered seeing as it would mean murder/assault is justified if someone is bullying you. More common is that the charge is dropped down to manslaughter, seeing as there isn't a lesser charge for assault I don't think that in this case charges would be dropped altogether.

Many cases? Unless your talking about getting charges dropped to manslaughter or penalties dropped to a fine or community service, then most murders and assaults would have charges dropped on them.

A lot of murders and assaults are crimes of passion, this doesn't mean they just let the person go. They still pay a penalty.

It takes a lot of effort and proof to argue it, that is why it doesn't work for everyone. Just like trying to run the insanity card. It has to be proven before it can be used.

That makes sense. And I guess in a lot of more minor assault cases charges aren't pressed anyway.

+1. I greatly agree with this...

When I was very young, bullying wasn't much of a worry since back then teachers were allowed to give kids a good whacking if needed. But now-a-days, bullies don't really suffer from anything. ISS? Detention? So what. They still in school. OSS? That's a vacation for them... so ye'h, things had changed and it really needs to be worked upon to a point where it at least slow down to a point where it would be much much safer for those who are victims.

Just because something is technically already illegal doesn't mean people do any justice. Normally, the only illegal things that students can get into trouble with the law are basicly related to weapons and drugs. When it comes to mentally or physically harming another student in minor ways, it is just the normal school detentions, ISS, etc that bullies don't give a crap for.

This is not true, my Dad said (not the best source I guess ) that when he went to school back in the 70's he was tied up and rolled down the stairs in rubbish bins, tied to urinals and all other sorts of things, the teachers also victimised him (one saw him tied up at the bottom of the stairs next to the rubbish bin and said "I see your all tied up") because they thought it was funny, or just apart of growing up.

In fact, the only way my Dad even survived school is because the biggest thug in the school asked him to lend him 50 cents, my Dad said, I'm not going to do that because you won't give it back, so I'll give you 50 cents. This guy thought it was cool the littlest guy in the school was the only person to talk back to him, so the next time my Dad was pinned down on the oval getting grass shoved down his shirt, this massive guy picked one of the bullies up and said "If I ever see you messing with him again I am going to kill you".

There is far more awareness about bullying and it's effects now than there was before.

I can't make up my mind on this, I don't have enough information. So until I do I'm sticking with "Bullying is Bad Kids! There is never an acceptable time or level!".

I suppose that's the difference between where our families grew up... because my dad was bullied until he beat the living crap out of one of his bullies and that garbage stopped with the quickness. He didn't get in trouble and life went on. I threatened to beat the crap out of a bully and got expelled from high school my senior year. It was greeeeat.

I'm not saying bullying wasn't horrible back then too, just that the victims seemed to have more freedom to fight back.

And Oof: Only physically harming someone is really ever upheld. I've seen story after story about people who are stalked on the internet and face absolutely horrible abuse/teasing from bullies. This stuff is in black and white, and the attackers never face consequences. I have absolutely no tolerance for this type of behavior and would rather these little monsters be stuffed away in a dark hole somewhere than running around where my niece or godchildren have to face them.

And that's when the person goes to the police and files a report, and/or gets an interdict. Solved! That wasn't difficult.

Except the problem is that police routinely don't want to get involved when the bullying is just verbal harassment. Not to mention victims don't want to "be a snitch" or report being bullied. And then there is cyber-bullying, which police very rarely ever get involved in until the victim has taken their own lives.

If the easy answer was "report problems to the police" then bullying wouldn't be the issue it currently is across the United States.

I think part of the reason why Bullying can be worse now a days is that there are so many more ways that a bully can affect the victim that generations past didn't have like popular sites

Someone at my school almost got to stage one of preparing for stabbing someone who was a common target for bullying. This kid was also a friend of mine, but I assumed the bully wanted to kill me when I overheard him plotting about bringing a knife to school. I had my mom call the school and alert them of what I had heard the minute I got home.

Most victims of bullying don't mention it or feel they will get more problems mentioning it. I never got beat up in my life, just verbally and mentally bullied. It went on throughout most of my public schooling, but only really got traumatic by middle school. Didn't mention much of the worst of it until it really got bad. It was only reported because I told my mom I was so scared to go to school the next day when I had overheard the bully wanting to bring a knife to school.

People always find ways to do awful things. Make a law and they'll find the loophole.

Sounds to me more like people are too forbearing when it comes to police. They are legally required to get involved, to handle your case, etc. If they don't, you open a complaint and/or you take them to court. There are plenty of (free, too) legal services in America that would be more than happy to take on a case about bullying. The more civilised a nation, the less laws it needs. There's no reason to institute additional laws about bullying when existing laws work just fine, if one bothers to have them applied.

I was bullied from elementary school all the way up to the end of high school. I fought back when it wasn't a group of people but that only got them off my back for a couple of weeks tops. Occasionally a few would pretend to be my friends only to hurt me down the road. The verbal, physical, and mental abuse took its toll on me over the years, affecting my personality and outlook on life.

I used to be very kindhearted, considerate, and while fairly shy a talkative individual once I got to know someone. I now hold a very bleak opinion of humanity (present company excluded of course ), I no longer care what anyone thinks of me, I can rarely show empathy anymore, I've gotten to a point where I keep all my emotions save for anger, grief, and despair bottled up, and I am caged by self-loathing and low self-worth.

Of course many will say just toughen up and get over it. For the most part I have it's just that bullying can have a significant affect on you. Anyway, I hadn't planned on talking about this but the topic brought up bad memories that I've been trying to suppress for a long time.

Uhhh didnt you say that your only 19? Im older than you and I know for a fact that in my life time teachers have never been allowed to hit their students nor was it accepted. If your teacher hot you I guarantee it wasn't "allowed".

Perhaps when you were very young social statues and cliques hadnt formed yet which as we all knnow is a major contributing factor in situations where one group of people seeks to harm or attack( physically or verbally) another group of people.( ever notice how young children dont make friends according to the color of their skin or what they wear?)

I'm pretty much for taking repeat offendors of bullying out of schools. It's not worth it. If they really want to amount to something, earn your GED or go work in a factory. The educational system shouldn't have to pick up every loser along the way. Some are just a lost cause.

The police may be legally required to get involved, but they first need to be informed of the issue. Which requires soemone to report the bullying. Which doesn't happen as much as it should. Stating that there are laws that already cover bullying doesn't negate the underlying issue of why people bully or how to make it stop. Only 20-40% of bullying victims actually report being bullied - and that doesn't say anything about how the school responds, whether they actively pursue the problem, etc. Something needs to be done to lower the level of bullying in schools, as the current system designed to stop bullying has failed.

They may be legally required to get involved by taking a report or whatever, but they are not required to actually do anything. And if the laws are anything like the stalking laws, they're useless anyways. Unless there is physical harm (and even then, you have to PROVE it was done by said person and why and etc.) they won't get truly involved. (With the stalking laws, your stalker has to pretty much kill you before they can do anything.)

Also, as far as I'm concerned we're not a very civilized nation being this type of behavior is an epidemic. Obviously, the laws in place are not adequate to deal with the issue at hand so something has to change.

Some guy went nuts and threatened to cut someone up with a knife once in my high school. Apparently he escaped and was chased down by the police. A few months later he returned to the school, and somehow we became acquaintances afterwards...

Most laws involving reporting various forms of abuse are rarely used by actual victims. Most victims of forms of abuse don't report it out of fear, embarrassment, shame, anger, more fear, and even just believing it is a normal thing to live with due to being so used to it. Some may actually be in danger of being harmed if they report the problem, too.

Shanking threats are always terrifying. You're lucky you ended up being friendly with him. My bully was a friend who ended up being homeschooled(he has a bad home life, so the homeschooling itself had nothing to do with how he came to be awful to me) and came back to school. Sat down at the lunch table the first day he came back. Took a look at how close me and a good friend were. Proceeded to threaten to take my lunch, make mocking punches and say, "You're a girl. Can't punch you.", and even gave a death threat after I was done drawing a Pokemon.

This kid had a mean streak, so I wasn't the only one being bothered by him. I just was the only one who reported him. He could have gotten my money when he was offering to sell a Gamecube game, but too bad he proved that my money wasn't worth his game no matter how good or awesome it was.

That doesn't sound too good. I'm sorry to hear about that.

I've never been bullied myself, but I've often been 'assigned' other children with issues when I was in primary school, probably because I was one of the friendlier people around. Besides my actual friends around that time, I also had some 'friends' that I really despised. Some of them had ADHD, others were just idiots who only cared about themselves and whatever they wanted. Now, I have nothing against people with ADHD, but during primary school those who had it often weren't fun being around, and I often ended up suffering from them myself. Sometimes I would get mad and abandon them or call them out, but the teachers/parents would always be against me and back up the other kids. That was pretty tough at times.

Teachers or parents would say, "please try to become friends; they haven't had an easy time," and I'm like, "sure, of course". I'd do anything to help other people. But I didn't expect to become their main target for their outlet. It almost felt like people wanted to direct their anger at me, rather than everyone else.

As time went on those people improved, but I still don't miss them.

It was allowed when I was in Kindergarden and 1st Grade. And technically, it wasn't the teachers. It was the Principle (I think I used wrong spelling). He'll call the parents and ask for permission to do this after telling the parents everything that happened... I actually did got into trouble a few times back then... Mostly because I was a small immature child who would say mean things back normally...

I was bullied quite a lot from 13-15. Fat, pimple-face kid with glasses - easy target. It was so bad it affected my school work and I looked for any excuse to not go to school (faked sick so many times I lost count). Oftentimes teachers looked the other way or the bullies were so careful as to do it when there were no staff around. The summer after my sophomore year I shot up from 5' 9" to 6' 3" and my Junior year all the bullying stopped. Cowards were afraid of me then due to my physical size. At least the last two years of high school were enjoyable. I'm really glad that bullying is taken more seriously now that back then - I sometimes thing advlts either don't know or have forgotten how damaging bullying is. No one should be subjected to that kind of stress day in and day out - least of all a kid.

You're 19 and (1) there are still bullies around?, and (2) they retort with "What? You're stupid!".

What school is this?