"And I didn’t give even a moment’s thought to the bullies, and what their lifetime prognosis might be.

Parents of these children need to be encouraged to demand that schools take action, and pediatricians probably need to be ready to talk to the principal. And we need to follow up with the children to make sure the situation gets better, and to check in on their emotional health and get them help if they need it.
How about helping the bullies, who are, after all, also pediatric patients? Some experts worry that schools simply suspend or expel the offenders without paying attention to helping them and their families learn to function in a different way."

I think one of the problems with kids bullying is that they come from a dysfunctional home to begin with which only compounds the problem even if the school intervened more to resolve the problems. Bullying and its results need to be addressed because it is a serious problem that can linger for years within the individual.

Not all bullys come from dysfunctional homes that is a highly stereotypical and inacurate assumption. Even at my school some of the worst bullys were from well off families, I have also had this reinforced to me by friends both locally and from around the world.

The usual causes of bullying are jealousy, peer pressure and a need to control things.

Being well off does not make a guaranteed happy home.
In most cases it makes it more dysfunctional. And the kids are made to feel superior to others.

I cannot believe someone said well off in that content, and implied bully=poor=disfuntional. Ignorance is the worst malady, and those tjatlike knowledge are the ones bullied! Bullying is culturally accepted by adults, so children follow. It's like racism, it's usually taught at home sometimes without awareness they are doing it.

This is where my daughter's fiance really has me worried. He is always telling my grandchildren that if someone does or says something to you that you don't like it's fine to hit them first. I tell them hitting is an extreme last resort action.

tanyamm-You are correct in telling them that. You have mentioned your Grandchildren several times and it seems to me you are giving them some good advice to help on their journey. Keep up the good work!

If certain social conditions had been more like today when I was a kid, my life would certainly different now - and there are certain people who bullied me whose lives would have been over. Since both the moral climate and my own inclinations didn't go that way, I had to content myself with fantasizing about my antagonizers coming to harm some other way.