Bah, I've been a loser from ~7 to ~18 (I'm 22) and I see right through the BS. I've been bullied repeatedly during that time. Fortunately it was "only" words in

Bah, I've been a loser from ~7 to ~18 (I'm 22) and I see right through the BS. I've been bullied repeatedly during that time. Fortunately it was "only" words in my case but the ravages and dynamics are mostly the same, I think. Here are some couple points, in random order: - Probably, about 50% of the fault lies with Billy. He will never get out of this hell if he doesn't accept a big part of responsibility. There's a reason he's the only one that gets beat so much and so hard. I'm sure his mother is well-meaning, but she's not helping him by putting all the blame on the other kids and the authorities which don't do squat. Which brings me to my next point. - Trying to get Billy out of hell by counting on authorities or throwing lawsuits is mostly pointless. The perpetrators are mostly untouchable and they're fully aware of it. Those that push for the authorities to enforce Billy's safety are only taking his destiny out of his hands and giving him a good excuse to blame others for his predicament. "It's not my fault if I'm not safe, it's the authorities that don't protect me enough". There will always be waves and waves of people that will attack Billy, verbally or physically, because guess what, there are tons of people in this world that are in dire need of better status and self-esteem and a lot of them will opt to pray on easy targets to make themselves feel superior. - I'm sure Billy thinks he can't reverse the tide because everyone knows him and how he gets beat. But throw him in a new neighborhood where nobody knows his past at all, and I'll bet you the same problem will occur. That's because he's projecting a bloody image of himself that the sharks will no doubt sniff real quick. When I was bullied, when people I had never even seen called me names I thought the word somehow had got around. But what I should have understood is that it's just the blood and shark thing. It's not that everyone knows you, it's that everyone can picture you in the generic loser template. Those days, I can recognize the "old me's" at a glance, and it's painfully obvious I could become a bully if I hadn't matured properly. - Trying to find external motivations like "he's too tall" or "he wears glasses" or "he has learning disabilities" is BS. When I was a loser, I was indeed "too tall", and there always was "something wrong with me" (ex: unfashionable clothes), but now I'm as tall as ever and I still have unfashionable clothes but nobody notices that anymore. Weird, eh? No, it's just my attitude that's changed.