>>>
>>>That's a little bit like saying that people shouldn't be nasty, isn't it?
>>>Let's have an Anti-Nasty-Behavior parade and boycott all the nasties.
>>
>>OK, I'll make a distinction between name calling and physical force.
>>
>>Name calling is certainly not good. Some people make a choice whether to hurl some nasty slur, or to just keep quiet.
>>
>>There's a difference between a random slur, and organized verbal bullying. I have seen many kids/teens verbally gang up on another kid who is different.
>>
>>In a few cases, it might actually help (helped me to get better at baseball when I was a kid). But more often it has bad side effects when it's a concentrated effort.
>>
>I agree that verbal bullying is nasty, but it's a fact of life.
>Spend a month in a GI barracks and you'll hear plenty of it.
>Put 20 or so men in a group and they'll find something to taunt someone about.
>I always thought it was nasty and avoided it.
>
>Willy Mays said he handled it this way- "Go ahead. Call me N.... I'll just hit it fu'tha"
>
>Yes, the physical stuff is way out of bounds.
>I can't believe it still takes place.

It does. One of my kids met one of his closest friends when she rescued him from bullies in 5th grade.

Over the last decade or so, schools have finally begun to take some responsibility for stopping bullying, but there's still plenty of it, and kids who are or who are perceived to be gay get a lot more of it than other kids.

Tamar