The anti-bullying movement is largely a steaming pile of bullshit. Fighting against physical violence is great, kids beating each other up is a cut and dry thing that shouldn't happen. Trying to coddle kids and say "verbal bullying" is some horrid epidemic that needs to be fought is just ridiculous. A little strife and misery is good for you, it helps you to not become an entitled little shit who thinks they deserve everything handed to them. Recent parenting and education movements about how a child's self esteem are super important and need to be protected and nurtured like a delicate little flower leads to kids growing up to become entitled little shits. Those kinds of people aren't prepared for the real world of adulthood, they don't learn how to effectively deal with conflict or how to deal with defeat, and that ends up causing much more strife and misery than any school bullying. This newer crusade against "cyber bullying" is even more ridiculous because they're treating it with the same seriousness as the kind of bullying that constitutes assault; the answer to "cyber bullying" isn't some major education and reform program, it's to teach kids to get off the internet if they're too fragile to deal with mean people, just click that little X in the upper right corner of the page to get away from the awful bullying.

As nice as it might sound to defend the bullied and condemn the bullies, to try to stop bullying altogether, the fact of the matter is that it never will stop. Humans are social creatures that form hierarchies, violence and cruelty can be justified by any number or rationales, so bullying is going to happen. The best way to deal with it is to teach people how to stand up for themselves and deal with problems rather than trying to shield them from all negativity. People need to take off their hope and optimism goggles and realize some problems are endemic to humanity and will never be eradicated, so impact mitigation is the best that can be done, and bullying is one of those problems.