Is it Now Cool to Bully?

I was bullied on occasion up through my freshman year in high school, but never, as far as I could tell, by the most popular kids.  In elementary school the one bully that I encountered was overweight and socially more isolated than me.  My junior high school was pretty large, and I never figured out who the school-wide popular kids were, but assuming they were student government and athletics they were not the ones that tried to persecute me.  In high school it was the same, and they were gone from the school by the time I entered my sophomore year.  The ‘cool kids’ may have teased, but they never bullied.  Of course, this was the first half of the 1960s.  If I’m to believe the few films I see or hear of about high school kids, it may now be considered cool to be a bully.  Not being in high school, and my son having been home schooled in high school, I know no more than I see in the movies or read in the media.  Have things really changed?

Related: “The Popular Kids Who Tortured You in High School Are Now Rich” by Katy Waldman at Slate.com

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