This piece from The Christian Science Monitor has a Hillsborough dateline, but a Carrboro mindset. Seems there are bullies in the public schools — five years after Columbine — and, yes, the problem is growing:
Public schools’ competition against both private schools and the voucher system may make it less palatable to report violence and thus be seen as a “problem” school. In the cavernous hallways and winding stairwells of large school buildings, loners may be all the more vulnerable to the reign of “hallway justice.”
I see. Then it is better to leave the bullied trapped in schools with their tormentors then? There is a something of point here, namely that we are going to see a round of attempts to game the system as real measures of educational accountability begin to come online. But it is up to us to call BS on those.
An administrator or teacher who covers up bullying or other bad behavior for selfish, short-term gain needs to find another line of work.