Acting together, and with adult support, students can reduce the incidence of cruelty in school—and make it a more caring place.
Janet had few fears about transferring to Whitman High School in the fall of her sophomore year. Bright, energetic, and socially agile, she had always been popular. She was excited about making new friends and imagined she would quickly find her footing in this new place.
So it rattled her when she found herself repeatedly trying to pry her way into conversations with a group of girls in the cafeteria and, even more so, when several popular girls began snubbing her in the hall. She summoned the courage to ask a classmate why she was being ignored and was told that several girls had decided that she was "too enthusiastic."