That's the way it was when I was a kid in Texas - but I also grew up some in Colorado. And I got to see both sides of the educational coin so to speak.Kids bully kids all the time. It's been like that forever. Did you ever play sports in HS? The bigger kids on th team always picked on the smaller guys. Did you ever play smear the queer? It was sanctioned by the coaches and it was a way to toughen up the smaller players. Just because you played sports didn't mean you were immune to it. There's a hierarchy for all students. It's no different with girls, some might say it's even worse.
I learned in elementary school, that you can't let the bullies win. Take a beating if you must, but the bully won't look at you the same after the fight. If you let it get bottled up, this type of thing can happen. I guess society has changed all that. No one wants to fist fight. They're afraid a knife or gun could be pulled. But I've gotta say, when you went out to ball field to settle it, either you got beat up or you did the beating, but afterwards those 2 never fought again and in many instances were friends afterwards.
Society sucks today. No if, and or buts.
Humans are animals, and we need to settle things with a minor amount of violence sometimes to achieve emotional stability.
Now? "Zero Tolerance for Violence! YOU ARE EVIL IF YOU PUNCH BACK! DO NOTHING! WE WILL SAVE YOU THE SECOND WE ARE DONE PUTTING 'RAPE ZONE 'SIGNS ON THE BATHROOMS!"
Our school system is causing these issues. Most of the kids these days would be expelled from the schools I went to in Texas as being too much of a little shithead to continue taking education in police society. And its all on the schools/parents.
And yeah, the females are much worse. Its like a game to see if they can get some girl to kill herself.