I have no doubt that many kids spend the day in school in fear. Schools do nothing about the bullying. They didn’t do much back in the 60s when I was in High School. They do even less now.
Gym teachers encouraged it. I still remember most of the football players with disgust. There were a couple of bullies who would kick people who got in their way in the nuts during the basketball unit. The Instructor looked the other way. When I heard he died years later I went out and had a beer in celebration.
My Dad sent me to the local Catholic, all-boys school run by monks, because he felt the public high school exposed my older siblings to drugs and post-modern societal chaos. He was right about that.
The monks and the dean of student affairs ran the school tightly. One one hand, they preached Christian brotherhood and mutual respect, and on the other, had iron-fisted discipline.
There was no bullying, no crass language, certainly no fighting or drugs, no chaos. They earned my respect early in my first year when one of the star football players got caught stealing a wallet. They kicked his @ss out immediately. No debate. It was a fantastic academic atmosphere.
I commented because even at the age of 14, I saw and realized the difference comparing to friends who had the same experience as you.
I graduated FRom High School in June, 1959. Our student population was roughly 1200 — in 7th thru 12th grades.
The football team enforced the school’s “no bullying” rules - bullies were taken out behind the gym for a “chat,” and most of the potential bullies got the “message” PDQ!
We also had a significant number of male WW II Veteran teachers - they did not take crap FRom anybody!
I do not remember a single instance of persistent bullying - I guess we were just real nice kids who looked out for each other?