The street stretching in front of the President’s Home, on the campus of the University of the Ozarks, serves as a bus stop for local school students. Pickup days gather a crowd of different aged and diversified youngsters. The other morning a police car was parked beside the bus. A benign interloper, I watched intently as two unsmiling officers spoke to attentive, fear-frozen little faces inside the bus. Curious, I waited before walking to my campus office to ask the policemen what had happened. They shook their heads in quiet frustration before one responded to my question.

“Several parents have reported incidents of bullying on this bus and at the elementary school. We were asked to speak to the students, to give them a lecture. I guess that’s our job.”

In light of that episode and some other ugly incidents on the national scene, I offer five recommendations about adolescent bullying, a serious problem. As a lifelong educator, I find acts of intimidation—student against student—to be particularly troubling.

1 Speak Out