I have been a silent observer of the botched effort by mostly well-meaning counselors, psychologists and intellectuals to curb the dangerous effects of bullying. Year after fruitless year, these supposedly "well-informed" individuals give the same, tired, old advice about how to get bullies to stop their reign of terror. And every year they say the same damn thing: just ignore it. The mantra goes that if you ignore a bully, he will somehow lose interest in bullying because he will not get the reaction he is trying to get out of people. First of all, if you have ever given anyone this miserably useless advice, I have a very important question for you. How on earth would you know what reaction any particular bully is trying to evoke from others? Are you inside the bully's head? Do you have direct contact with a bully psychic who keeps you informed on the daily workings of bully activities? Or are you just blowing smoke up the country's ass in hopes that your next pitiful book deal will be even more prosperous than the last? Whatever your reason for repeating this awful advice every year since I was a young child, we have all had quite enough of your pretense. These experts obviously have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to taming the beast of bullying because both internet and real world bullying have increased in occurrence and severity over the years. Nationwide, twenty percent of students aged twelve to eighteen experience bullying. Nineteen percent of those students were bullied on school property, which demonstrates a huge failure on the part of school faculty and staff to intervene in these incidents. I still remember the rather careless and flippant attitude much of my school faculty took in addressing the issue of bullying. These school employees are absolutely dreadful at creating the culture of mutual respect that is needed to eradicate bullying. In fact, I have personally witnessed many teachers openly embarrass, harass and make inappropriate jokes about their own students, who they are paid to protect by the way. But it is not just the teachers fault. Most adults have failed children by not discussing bullying with young people. In order to prevent people from feeling the need to bully several tactics have been proven to be effective: encouraging children to do what they love (not what is "smart" or what makes the most money; you had your childhood already and it is time for you to back off and let your child do what makes them happy, not you), modeling kindness and respect for children in your daily life (you heard it right; if you act respectful around children then they will act respectful around their peers) and encouraging children to seek help (many young people, especially young boys, are afraid to ask for help because they believe it will make them appear weak). So this is a problem that can be remedied as long as we are all willing to participate in order to make it so. That means being honest with children about the dangers of such behavior, none of that "just get over it and toughen up" crap I hear from so many parents and teachers alike. I understand that you may think that being kind to others is too much to ask, but how do you think your child feels when he or she sees you engaged in another act of road rage? How do they feel when you are rude to a waiter or cashier when you are dining out? How about all of the domestic abuse in the home? What behavior does all of this violence encourage? Bullying. And do not even get me started on all of these phony alpha males trolling the internet picking on women and children so they can compensate for their tiny dicks. Your child is not safe at school and they are not safe on the internet. So where can they go? You are all they have. But, admit it, you are always too busy. So, they feel abandoned by their teachers and their parents, the ones who are supposed to have their backs. You need to grow up. Stand up for yourselves and others.