I just thought the same thing

That's gotta be it!

HAHAHAH-- wait you're serious?

What I thought was, look at her smile...that's a genuinely sweet girl, there.

I went to school in the 80s/90s and I can tell you yes, it was absolutely like that then. Not sure how it is now. I was a member of the unofficial Loser's Group in every single school I went to, and was bullied for my name (Crystal) and my hair (I look like a Chia Pet.) All the girls were in cliques/groups, so I only had boys as friends, and the popular/athletic boys were all in their OWN cliques/groups, so my friends were my fellow nerds XD Some of the best AND worst times of my life, tbh. I can't imagine it's changed at all, except to have gotten worse, with the rise of social media - now kids can bully their classmates anonymously online/via text.

The bullying is for real, sadly. My very gentle-by-nature spouse had to learn in elementary school how to punch back harder so they didn’t keep bullying for having hair that was slightly “too long” and therefore “gay.” I was bullied most of my childhood for being the ugly teachers pet, but after puberty my classmates decided I was a whore against all evidence to the contrary. At 14 my school-wide nickname was “chitty-chitty-gang-bäng.” It didn’t get better in the next four years, but I’ve unloaded enough of my trauma for now lol. But it’s safe to say that even in relatively affluent school districts, even if the physical punching is not obvious, the emotional abuse is pretty omnipresent.

I went to high school in the 2010s, and yes.... we had something called "the wall," and only popular people could be there, and sometimes they would literally kick you out like a bar bouncer. However, there wasn't a lot of physical beating up as a form of bullying - it was all digital by that point.

I'm in early middle school, so I'll tell you a bit about my experience so far. At my school, there are different groups of people (sportsy/popular kids, the smart kids, the emo kids, etc.) I'm in the emo kids & smart kids friend group (the two have pretty much merged). There isn't much bullying that I know of, the most that's happened to me is a boy calling me ugly & throwing stuff at me, but generally the groups leave each other alone.

Short answer, it's complicated. Long answer, I went to a small school with a class of about 50 or so, and my *perception* at the time was that yes, it was every bit as bad. But, looking back, I was a very strange kid, socially awkward, and maybe I didn't quite see reality the way everyone else did. Maybe they gave me every opportunity to be included, but we just didn't understand each other. I like to think I've grown a lot since then, but I'll never know how much of what I thought of people was real or just my skewed perspective. [And, now I'm imagining "People Are Strange" playing in the background]

I’m homeschooled… don’t ask me lol. But I imagine I’d be the loner. I‘m reclusive, though smart. Maybe I’d have an extrovert adopt me, but I dunno :/ would be hard to keep friends if they wanna do crazy things and I tell them no. Or if I tell them I’m a Christian. That could be a turn off

I work in a School Based Health Clinic that is actually at a high school. 95% of the patients are high schoolers. I have so much hope for the future. These kids are awesome, and as there is still some bullying and bad apples, for the most part people are really supportive of each other and there seems to be a good sense of respect and community. For example, the school had a Pride Party for Pride month (completely voluntary) and the football players had a booth, the theater kids, many different clubs. There were performances and the support and togetherness was inspiring! If only their parents could learn a thing or 2 from them.

Yes. Bullying is an epidemic in American schools and it's being ignored.

Movies often overexaggerate how much bullying goes on in schools in general. I am currently an 8th grader in Washington State preparing to move on to a public high school in September. I know a few of the high schoolers in the school that I will be going to, and every one of them says that there are very low levels of bullying (or even none at all). At the middle school that I am going to, and my former elementary school, there is/was no bullying. Of course, these are just some of the many public schools in America, and I don't know how much bullying goes on without my knowledge. But, from my point of view, and compared to how much bullying is shown in movies, there is pretty much no bullying in American schools in real life. (My apologies to anyone who has had to go through being bullied.)

From what I understand, kids in US schools get very little support such as counselling, anti-bullying programmes, gay pride. It's every kid for themselves.

It’s okay to be nice to someone, or have someone be nice to you, without having any further expectations. Just Friendship is a wonderful thing.