Bullying occurs everywhere, even in the highest-performing schools, and it is hurtful to everyone involved, from the targets of bullying to the witnesses—and even to bullies themselves.

Is bullying minimized as a “normal rite of childhood,” or is it recognized as the harmful peer abuse that it is?

Are educators empathic to their students, and do they value children’s feelings? Teachers receive little guidance in “classroom management,” and sometimes default to the disciplinary strategies they learned in their own families growing up.

Adults experience bullying in their workplaces at about the same rate as children in schools, and it’s even found among teachers and in senior living communities. In other words, bullying is not just a childhood problem; it is a pervasive human problem.