One only needs to consider the prevalence of conflict, bullying and the emotional trauma that these youth struggle with to get a clear picture of how this issue ultimately causes strife in our societies.
I experienced bullying both in elementary school and in middle school. Both my classmates and some of my schoolmates bullied me. Both physically and verbally. The bullying in the elementary school was almost constant from the beginning of the school to the end of the school. The middle school was a little bit different. At one point, I had enough of the bullying, and I became a private student in middle school, and I finished it as a private student.
I'm sorry to hear of your experience in school, xplosive. Children are much like chickens... they have a pecking order. The one with biggest attitude wins, and the more timid and mild-mannered ones become targets. I know because I had onion skin (i.e. extremely thin-skinned). I experienced some bullying in Jr. High, too, although not as badly as you did. My low self-esteem was what made me a target. One of the most liberating experiences of my life, though, was when I found out years later in college that the girl who bullied me had had a "rough home life". Amazingly, the instant I read those words (in a letter from a friend) her bullying made perfect sense to me and all of my hatred for her evaporated.