Regardless of how likely a child is to be a bully or to be targeted as a victim by bullies, it has been proven that in schools where bystanders are empowered and encouraged to take action when bullying occurs AND where predetermined steps to address bullying with the perpetrators includes definitive and increasing consequences from school administration, the bullying is significantly reduced. Not just reports of it - but ALL of it. As the principal of one school put it, "the bullies said they just got tired of constantly getting in trouble for bullying, and the eventually stopped on their own." This included not just the physical bullying many think of when the term is used, but verbal abuse, teasing, taunting, exclusion, rumor spreading, etc.

How often does that happen in schools? Meaning, how often is it that bullying is proactively addressed as a team by parents AND school administration, and not simply swpet under the rug with the victims to deal with it?

As the website www.StopBullyingNow.com states, sexual harassment and drunk driving used to be tolerated and deigned "just part of life" but now there is zero tolerance. The same needs to happen for bullying. There might be zero tolerance for weapons in school, but if there were zero tolerance for bullying, the weapons (I suspect) would nearly cease to be an issue.

Another reason schools should stand up and pay attention, if not for the millions of children affected into adulthood by childhood bullying (I have friends who still bear the scars), is that a decrease in bullying and increase in feelings of general safety and well-being directly translate to better test scores for the school:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/516342/

And we all know how important test scores are to schools...