I guess I lived a charmed school life.
I sure didn't and especially not in Junior High, that's for sure, and that was some 50 years ago... :-)
I was never sure that I would come home alive from school. People did get killed there and knifed and shot. We're not talking about today but 50 years ago.
Teachers got beat up, parents and kids did the beating. Saying the wrong thing or looking the wrong way would get you pounded in the hallways.
On my first day there (an orientation day, actually, the day before school actually started) a carload of Mexicans got out and unloaded a pistol into the crowd (where I was) and killed one person, wounding several others. That was an introduction to what was coming up... :-)
It was in Dallas, and you would hear about the rumbles there, too, at different schools, like you saw in "West Side Story"...
I am so sorry your school years were not like mine. The biggest worry I had was if I wouldn’t get 100 on a Friday test. I high school I never worried about anything but if the varsity could win that week, or whether I would drop my baton during the halftime show. I guess a few people were picked on, but it was friendly and for forgetting to wear their pearls on the exact right sweater type, or forgetting to polish their white bucks or saddle shoes.
Thank you for giving me such wonderful memories and I am sorry your memories make your day less joyful.