Punish Bullies...Please.

I think most of us have stories about our youth in which we either had a few run ins with bullies or were continually bullied as kids. We dealt with it. We were possibly told to ignore bullies, but obviously, these kids caused self-doubt and every emotion from shame to self-doubt. the mean girls that I encountered started with bad reputations,. From the start, they were being brought up by awful parents. These days, everyone knows everything if they follow stories and situations on social media. Kids should not make their entire lives about what other people are doing! Their parents use the phones and computers and games to be babysitters and parents for their kids. These parents are too exhausted or busy or whatever they are doing and let the kids just live with their electronics. There is no way for a bullied kid to stand up to being cyber bullied! I just can't imagine that so many kids have such bad behavior! And teachers can't raise their students either! Parents need to have zero tolerance for their bad kids' words, actions and the list goes on. And they need more punishment than just having their electronics taken away! We need to really give these rotten kids some harsh consequences. Evidently, they need to be scared straight. And sent to mental and physical boot camps. They need to get a grip! My little mentee Nina just told recently that there so many kids being mean to her. I just don't get it. So what do I tell her? The blah, blah about this is how they are being raised? To ignore it? To bully back? I'm going to tell her that there are a certain amount of kids who are just rotten. And we need to just focus on being friends with the good kids. Seek them out. And don't get bogged down with the bad ones. So yes, try to ignore the cruel and lost ones. We can't fix stupid or cruel or evil.Find some good friends and hold on to them. Hopefully, she will continue to grow up and into being a self-confident person who can take care of herself in this big world of the unknown.