Blog 11-Bullies...what now?

I’m sure we can all think of a student who was/is bullied in school or on the school bus. It’s a sad situation and it seems to be getting worse. I have read a few articles about recent bullying and I’m starting to think it’s becoming more noticeable in younger grades and we aren’t doing enough about it.
I have seen two personal examples of recent bullying of a sixth grade and ninth grade boy. In both situations the bullying has been ongoing. In one situation spitting was the main form of bulling and it ended in punches and stolen money. The sixth grade situation was the typical vocal blows but it involved large amounts of swearing. It just amazes me that kids are swearing at such a young age and are using it bully situations. In an article from the New York Times a girl was raped by a group of men. It was done at the end of a dance in the school courtyard. The school has now increases security. Another article I read was from a local Mississippi newspaper. It discusses the rise of female bullies. Girls take bulling to a new level. They get very personal and emotional. This has become so popular that they have even made a movie called, Mean Girls.
So now that we know there is a huge problem what do we do as educators? Well I wish I had that easy answer but I don’t know if anyone does. I do have a suggestion for myself and any other educator. I think we need to start early, really early! I have seen kindergarten and first grade students (mainly girls) start “popular” groups or leave the same students out. As a teacher I know that some students don’t mesh well together and to be honest I try to avoid confrontation and I do not push students to work with students they don’t care for. I’m starting to think that I need to stop that and teach student’s tolerance and acceptance of different people. I want my students to learn that we don’t have to be best friends with everyone but we need to show mutual respect for everyone I think the younger we can start teaching this the better off we will be. As a teacher I also hope to promote an open door policy where student can always come to me if someone is bothering them. This is something I need to take seriously. I also want to be a fly on the wall as much as possible so I can know my students and try to prevent harmful bully situations.
I do not work with any type of older students and my bully problems can usually be handled easily but is there anything new happening out there to decrease bully situations? I was crushed when I heard of the two situations. I never would have guessed that students could be that mean. I feel that something has to be done or else we are going to have some scary situations to deal with.