I'm old as well, from long before "bullying" was a well-known verb.

However, I was bullied by the greater majority of those I was in school with, along with a couple of other kids who were likewise singled out, for looking different, for being poor, and in my case I got it especially bad because I looked sickly and had the inexplicable oddness that a deeply neglected child of a pedophile with no outlet for healing could only have.

So maybe it has somewhat to do with ratio, because in my school bullies weren't labeled problem students and weren't moved through any process -- they were the majority, and we that were in the minority were the ones seen as defective, by the teachers as well as the students, and were treated accordingly. Majority rules. When I've gone to high school reunions, I'm actually warm and friendly to everyone, having worked such ancient history out at this point, but mostly it's they that can't look at me, which I can only guess is because they don't want to be faced with the memories of having once behaved so terribly.

Mental health resources? Certainly no one ever bothered to ask me why I was the saddest, sickest looking, most scared little girl in the entire school, and it would never have occurred to me to talk to anyone about being bullied, because everyone in every environment in which I existed was so inured to the culture that existed, all wearing it on their own sleeves, survival of the fittest, buck up! etc. I just assumed that anything I said would be perceived as whining, being a crybaby, and could actually bring me further torment, because it had happened before, for far less.

Now that it holds greater weight in the public consciousness, it's inevitable that some people will misuse the word to describe less unmanageable interactions, wittingly or unwittingly, and I've even seen adults do this which is particularly annoying -- we just have to keep talking about it, educating people. What better time than childhood for people to learn how to be genuinely supportive and non-judgmental of their fellow man?