Seconded in full, save that I suspect in a lot of cases it's not just "interested in not seeing it" but rather silently cheering bullies on, on the same general theory as someone might, while finding the specific methods distasteful, approve in general of the idea of cross-gender rape as a corrective for homosexuality. (If that seems like an overly strong statement to you, consider that both "corrective rape" and bullying revolve around the use of violence to enforce a social norm. Granted, the former is much worse than the latter generally manages, but I'm increasingly convinced that the difference is more of degree than of kind.)

It's for reasons like this that, while pragmatically convinced it'll never actually happen, I am strongly in favor of the law treating adults who passively or actively enable bullying as it does anyone else who abets or conspires to a crime. Seeing the erstwhile principal of a school dragged off in irons, to be arraigned on suspicion of having been an accessory before and after the fact to assault and battery, seems to me just the thing to give every other responsible party, in every other school sharing the jurisdiction, powerfully to think. No, it'll never happen, but the once-bullied kid in me surely wishes it would.

If it's norm enforcement, then it reveals the disgusting inner nature of a lot of people: "these people are weak, so they should be harassed."

Can you sue a school/teachers for negligence here? Oftentimes demanding people to lawyer up seems to correct behavior remarkably quickly. Similarly, the threat of suing parents would probably also cause something to happen.

Well, as I understand it, you can sue over any tort if you feel so justified, and the rest is up to a judge. I'm not a lawyer, though, so I'm not even sure about that much, to say nothing of being able to predict the likely outcome of such a case in a given jurisdiction.

The point isn't even to win, it's to send a message.

Of course, if their parents are lawyers, or well-versed in law, this may not work. :)

There's also the question of what message you might send by losing such a suit.

I've lost the link, but something like that actually did happen in the US recently. It surely helped that it was so flagrant and that there was video evidence, but a teacher was arrested for encouraging a bunch of kids to beat up another kid in the halls.

I can't find the story either, but that sounds like an excellent start to me.

I'm not sure whom you imagine to constitute "they", but I've found from my own experience that assigning the responsibility for a problem, to some nebulous "they", tends to result in considerable underappreciation of the complexities involved.

I was referring to the authorities. But yes, I guess I should be thinking and discussing solutions rather that assigning responsibility to "them"!

>>>> But I am pretty firmly of the opinion that the school system tends to greatly underestimate the impact of bullying, conclude based on their actions that they are far more interested in not seeing it than in making it go away

Fully agree with this. I remember telling a teacher about bullying near the end of school and he talked to those 4 bullies.

Talking in this case was basically taking them out of the class (while smiling) and then talking to them for 2-3 minutes. When they came back, they were walking proudly and clearly pointing at me. A few weeks later, it started all over again. And the optimist in me died a small death.

I just finished reading Paul Graham's essay on why nerds are not popular and it kind of resonates. It is not about bullying but talks about schools in a completely different light.

Thanks for mentioning that essay. I just finished reading, and it made a lot of sense. Being popular in school is like a job. Most nerds I know (myself included) simply didn't care to put in the time or effort for the grooming, fashion, and surface-level socialization necessary.

The link: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html