Very sorry for your experience Jacqui... That is horrible.

growing up in a small town and my kids doing same, only experienced/witnessed the one on one type of bullying which was easily enough dispatched.

When I was about 11, I had a couple of days of bigger older girl following me home from school, taunting, stepping on my heels and shoving from the back. After a several times telling her firmly to stop, I finally swung around and slapped her so hard she fell on her ass. I turned and continued my walk home with other kids from my neighbourhood. I never said another word to her or about her and I was not bullied again by her. 2 years later another older girl challenged me to meet at "the chain" (chained off dead end road behind the junior high school) after school let out, several times. I always showed up (as did others hoping to witness the fight) but she never did. Word travelled fast that she was the one who instigated and then chickened out and she stopped bothering me.

I have to say... I was always more afraid of what my father might say or make me do, if he got wind of me being bullied. I know he forced my older brother when he was about 10 or 11 to face down a bully who was much older (4 or more years) and bigger. That had a huge impact on me and made me fear my father more than any mere kid.

I never saw or heard of group bullying until the late 80s. Preppie kids making the most of their privileged little lives by categorising groups of kids into acceptables (popular, attractive, wealthy, cheerleaders, athletes and some brainiacs) and unacceptables (poor, unattractive, weak, weird, artists, marching band members, skateboarders, punks, druggies and science and chess club members). Still you rarely found unrelentent group harassment of one individual that we have seen in the news of late.

Kids today are disconnected from the family and community. They are bereft and desperate to fit in with a group so easily indoctrinated to either committing the bullying or being the victim of it.

We need the revival of tight knit family and community to give kids a sense of place and personal worth.