Bullies or victims?

In my opinion, I think it’s very biased and quite unfair the rate at which bullies are demonized without trying to understand their back stories; hear me out, I’m not advocating for bullies neither do I support any kind of bullying. Now considering how rampant this is in schools all over the world, one might almost say it’s a part of the school experience. It’s constantly portrayed in movies and tv shows. They’re often depicted as big brawny boys (often not very bright) or as spoilt bimbos. Let’s face it this stereotype has abound long enough for one to sometimes be able to accurately guess who the bully is without difficulty. I had a classmate once who made a career out of routinely bullying this other girl who was also a classmate. It got out of hand as they once got physical and the bully put this other girl in the hospital. She was to be expelled but a couple of teachers decided to run a background check and discovered she was a victim of abuse who came out from a broken home.

Now, I’m not saying bullies who are victims of abuse or who come from broken homes get a free pass neither am I suggesting that it makes their behaviors acceptable… I just feel like most of these “bullies” have one thing or another that causes them to act the way that they do. I read an article that suggests many of them have severe self-esteem issues and use picking on those they feel superior to as a compensatory mechanism for their inadequacies.

The bully in my narrative was suspended rather than expelled, went through therapy and was successfully reintegrated into the school system. It may not always be easy or possible, but I think that a major way to combat bullying would be to psychologically evaluate said bullies and try to put them through some form of counseling or therapy in an attempt to reintegrate them into the school system. That being said, schools in general should continually sensitize their students as early and as frequently as possible to at least reduce bullying. The bulk of the work lies at home and with the individual but I guess we’ve got to start from somewhere. Don't we?