"Do we know what bullying is — breadth and depth?"

"Once a bully was someone who pulled a girl’s pigtails or called a rival’s mother a name. That is bullying, but what was below the tip of the iceberg is now showing: The Columbine and Virginia Tech massacres occurred in response to bullying, yet both were also extreme bullying."

"Intense feelings are triggered in the one bullied and the witnesses. But bullying is also triggered by some of those very same feelings – like hurt, fear, anger, powerlessness. Particularly powerlessness. And a ravenous hunger for power as a way to defend against powerlessness."

"A boy, degraded when crying for help, is told “You’re acting like a baby. You’re a little sissy!” He grows up, demeans somebody else who needs help. Perhaps his own son. His aged father. . . the very person who debased him when he was a toddler reaching for daddy’s help."

– Judith Barr

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Reprinted with permission from todaysparentusa.com