“I get that there is bullying at every school,” said Woest, who
eventually transferred her daughter to another school following
what she called “repeated efforts” to resolve the situation with
the school and the other student’s family. “But in this case, it
was so severe and ongoing that we felt we had to do something.”
Woest isn’t alone. According to the National Education
Association, more than 160,000 children miss school each day due
to bullying, and more than 90 percent of fourth- through eighth-
grade students report having been the victim of bullying at
their school. Kids will be kids It wasn’t long ago that bullying
was considered a natural rite of passage, a coming-of-age
playground experience that built backbone and taught kids to
stand up for themselves. They all knew a bully, and with a
little introspection, might have confessed to uttering an unkind
word or two themselves. But while bullying isn’t new, its
current level of intensity and sophistication has been ratcheted
up. “Kids have always picke