^the trouble with coping mechanisms for victims being seen as a significant part of a solution, IMO. In an actual culture of bullying and delivered by possibly overworked teachers (or just ill-informed), it tends to end up just being one more element of blaming the victim, that they are somehow responsible to nullify what is systemic victimization -- not just people "being mean" but systemically subjugating those they recognize as already being vulnerable.

The statistics on how many victims of schoolyard bullying are also being traumatized in other parts of their lives are fairly shocking, but this is how certain people get targeted. I like how the National Child Advocacy Center phrases it best, and I may have already quoted it earlier in this string for which I apologize if its the case: "Emotional residues from maltreatment can create a “victim schema” that communicates vulnerability to peers and can invite bullying and peer violence." Which is a far cry from how it's more often characterized, that a child is "acting like" a victim. In any event, even if the maltreatment is strictly happening at school, it's easy to see how victimization can get stuck in a vicious cycle.

As a side note, I suppose it's just semantics, but I think that so much better than a zero-tolerance policy would be an actual zero-bullying policy. Reminds me of when George Carlin would talk about how we are constantly coming up with ever more sterile and over-complicated terminology to mean the same thing until finally we've stripped all the humanity from our communication. (on YouTube: George Carlin/Euphemisms. Always a classic.)