SCHOOLYARD BULLYING IS JOINED AT THE HIP WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Especially in public schools, where a strict anti- bullying policy is often not imposed or enforced adequately, in some form or another, bullying is actually more prevalent than ever before. 

Intellectual and verbal abuse is bullying just as much as grabbing someone's shirt, punching them or throwing food or foreign objects at them. Make the comparison between anti- bullying policies on a school by school basis. 

Without fail you will find that where a school headmaster proactively endeavours to stamp out bullying in their school, a culture of zero tolerance towards it is much more likely to exist within the school grounds, and adhered to by students. 

Where some headmasters don't, and they're lackadaisical and fail to come down hard on bullying, sadly, bullies will run amok and do as they please, and make life intolerable and depressingly sad for fellas like Tyrone Unsworth. 

Tyrone was driven to the extreme, to take his own life, after being the victim of some particularly nasty and vigilante like bullying. What was his sin? He was gay. His attackers effectively killed him. Bullying is not just a school yard issue that can be dealt with by strict headmasters and zero tolerance policies in schools. It's a very complex multilayered social issue. 

The manner in which bullies behave is most often a psychological reflection of their home life - and mirrors the aggression, violence and in some instances sexual abuse which they themselves are a victim of at home. Sadly, to completely stamp out schoolyard bullying, society has to completely stamp out domestic violence. The correlation between the two is very tangible.