Bullying, social hierarchies, poverty, and health outcomes.

We thought that the issues associated with bullying among children and teenagers deserved the attention of bioethicists. We were specifically interested in why bullying has traditionally been treated as an almost normative childhoodexperience, something that is just apart of growing up, and that children should learn to deal with it on their own. Themodel for this benign neglect of the seriousness of bullying activities is illustrated in an anecdote recounted by Koo.1 In 1885 at King’s Boarding School in the United Kingdom, a 12-year-old boy was killed from bullying behaviors by his older classmates. The boys responsible were not punished because the bullying behavior was seen as normal and acceptable among schoolboys.1