And what about trying to help yourself, when you're being tormented?
To hear my old teachers tell it, they would've said that was just attention-seeking and being too weak to solve your own problems.
Unfortunately, I ended up with an extremely cynical opinion of the public school system as a result of what I went through from K-8. Maybe the reforms that have come down since that time help, but I find myself very reluctant to contemplate sending any future children into that institutional hell.