Can the Breakfast Club Stop Bullying?

This morning we talked about a 12 year old Pittsburgh boy who committed suicide because of bullying at school.  I could barely get any words out thinking about what he went through on a daily basis in a place where you'd expect to be insulated from such behavior and be able to flourish emotionally and intellectually.  Then I started thinking about what his parents must be going through having been unable to protect their child from such horrors.  It literally brings me to tears.

I don't know why but, when I was in middle & high school, I always tried to stick up for the kids who were getting bullied.  Maybe that's why I feel so strongly about this issue. And to make matters worse, we now have social media where bullying has become the rule rather than the exception.  Hell, it's an art form.

I've come to the realization that the administration may never be able to solve this problem.  Not because that won't try but because it may not be possible in this day and age.  Years ago I suggested that the popular kids; the leaders in the schools have to take it upon themselves to take care of this problem.  Sort of a "self-policing" structure that works from within.  You get the heads of all the groups like we saw on The Breakfast Club and they let their people know that this WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! Afterall, members of these factions have probably been bullied in some form or another.

Will it get better eventually? Maybe.  But how many more kids will take their own lives when it gets so bad that suicide is a better option.  And if your kid is is doing the bullying in any situation and you don't do anything to stop him or her, than you're just as much to blame.