[Margaret Pilkington]

while I appreciate that bullying is not acceptable, neither is this.
We are rearing children who are going to be unable to cope with any kind of criticism, and the climate they will eventually face once they leave school.
Yes, children can be cruel in their jibes, but then the world is sometimes a cruel place......where are children being taught to build strategies to cope with what life and the world throws at them?

I was taught that bullies can't take being stood up to, and that to stand up to them and face them down was the only way.
I worked with colleagues(Consultants mainly) who thought it was Ok to bully their staff.......to bellow at them for things that they had no control of.
I would not accept this type of treatment......I stood my ground, and gained life experience and also respect from the people who were bullies with others.

I feel that there are other ways of dealing more effectively with this kind of situation, than the ones that are proposed.

We are in a mad mad world.......a world where someone who tortured and killed a child can be allowed out of prison on licence, who can have their identity changed, their anonymity protected, and yet we want to criminalise children for name calling.