[CFrance]

There was lots of bullying in my elementary school. Not so much in high school. I was bullied once in elementary school when I was a newbie. The only thing it taught me was to hate going to school for a while.

Our son was bullied in middle school. We had gone from a semi-midwest benign attitude to the more assertive East Coast atmosphere. It didn't teach him anything either!

I'm happy to say he got over it. Being good at sports helped a lot.

Neither school would do anything about it. One even tried to expel him when a kid attacked him on the basketball court, and he refused to fight back. They said they were both fighting. A friend of his told me a different story. I pitched an almighty fit with the principal, and they interviewed classmates (which they should have done to begin with) and exonerated him.

Some kids can take it, and some kids can't. Depends on their personality. But you have to be your child's advocate, because even now the schools don't quite know how to handle it.