[NewChief]

Briefly read through the report, and I agree that it's pretty classic bullying. I also read all the text exchanges between Incognito and Martin a while back. Even then, I'd say it was bullying. Was Martin partially to blame? Hell yeah, he was... but that's VERY OFTEN the case with "bullying." It's a pretty common occurrence that the bullies don't realize the level of hurt/harm they're inflicting on the "victim," often thinking that it's just in good fun.

It's a really, really hard to define line. As someone who works with teenage boys in an environment where I can be help legally at fault for allowing bullying to take place, I constantly have to deal with this. With boys, especially, it's hard for me to tell when they're just giving each other shit and when it's become mean spirited and hurtful toward one of the parties. The kid being "bullied" usually seems to be playing along and even enjoying the exchange on the surface.

If bullying was always obvious and easy to see, then it wouldn't be nearly as common, because everyone would recognize it as aberrant behavior. It's usually much, much more subtle and hard to define than we envision.