Introduction: “The Willow Tree” is a heartfelt, yet apoplectic, follow-up to “The Road Less Traveled.”  The important conversation relating to the topic of bullying rages on.  Bullying:  the diabolical and relentless attempt by an insecure person (or persons) to willfully humiliate, hurt, and dehumanize another person (or persons) in order to feel a sense of empowerment.  A gaping and infected wound in our society that has metastasized due to the inaction, and intrinsic participation, of those who have voluntarily signed up and are charged with preventing its spread.  We are going in deep to explore why this pernicious issue is purportedly beyond anyone’s control, specifically in schools, and why it continues to worsen rather than improve even with all that is allegedly being done to mitigate both its short-and-long-term damage.  I have a few unpopular, yet compellingly irrefutable, ideas.      As a general self-imposed rule and disclaimer, I try to not curse in my writing. In my daily life, I am unabashedly fluent in the use of some of the more scurrilous and indelicate wordcraft; but you would never know that because in my writing I consciously resist the strong urge to throw down mud-slinging trash talk to make a point.  (And, by the way, with my high level of fluency, that restraint and self-control is not as easy to do as you might think.)  However, the issue of bullying absolutely incenses me, and I find it nearly impossible to not drop a few unseemly words here or there. Either way, if a simple, yet offputtingly thuggish, word offends you, try to imagine for a moment how recipients of bullying feel as they are verbally, emotionally, and physically assaulted.  Lastly, I am not, nor have I ever professed to be, an expert in behavioral science or social psychology.   Truth and provable facts, common sense, basic humanity, and an overall expected societal code of conduct are non-negotiables for me. Whether you choose to embrace them or not is entirely up to you.  With that being said, consider this a friendly reminder of the fundamental Golden Rule that we – adults and children alike – should all know by now: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “……or, we can disentangle ourselves from the fray and break free.”  Those were the last words of “The Road Less Traveled.”  An essay written from a mother’s perspective – my perspective – about bullying in schools which, as was the case with my family, resulted in having to transfer my daughter in her 7th grade year from the only school she ever knew into a different, much bigger, local school where we had hoped that she would get a fresh start.  A clean slate, so to speak.  An opportunity for her to break away and become free from the children who bullied, mocked, and ostracized her.  Children who openly and persistently made every effort to humiliate and diminish her without consequence.  Children who, even though she had been removed from the school and their daily view, in no uncertain terms, let her know that they were still thinking about her and that they were not done with her just yet.  So, they poisoned the proverbial well, all but ensuring that the experience at her new school would be a continuation and replication of the exclusion and maltreatment that she had, by force and through no fault of her own, grown accustomed to. She became acutely aware, because it was made abundantly clear, that she would have no friends at the new school either.  This was no aberration or misunderstanding of any kind.  This was a premeditated, calculated, and coordinated act of pure cruelty that included groups of simpleminded tween girls from not one, but two schools who, unpredictably, knew each other from extracurricular activities outside of school.  Ill-natured and insolent young girls who were decidedly and collectively hellbent on making my daughter feel outcasted and unwelcome. Common words like “children,” “school,” and “consequence” are going to be used a lot here because apparently, they need to be underscored and highlighted to garner attention.  Children inside, and outside, schools who bully others for one reason and one reason only – because they can.   Their behaviors are elusive to school officials, evidently, which is why there are no consequences thereby compounding and worsening the impact of bullying over time.  School officials who spend an inordinate amount of time ‘gaslighting’ children, along with parents, in their ongoing efforts to remain off their state education department’s radar.  Time that would undoubtedly be much better spent regulating and curbing bullying rather than making excuses for it.  Even still, when the focus becomes exclusively about the recipients of bullying and excusing the devious and cunning misdeeds of the now emboldened children who lean into their role as a bully, it would appear that the adults who allow it to happen are afforded a pass.   An unspoken and favorable adjudication that allows them to continue to hide in the ‘gray area’ seemingly protected by irreproachability, ambiguity, and substandard policies.  Some of those underdeveloped and short-sighted policies, coincidentally, relate to “HIB” (which stands for Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying) and have turned out to be nothing more than vague wordsmithing, written by a team of lawyers, intentionally designed to create more confusion rather than conflict resolution. Note:  Yes, I am fully aware that a large percentage of bullying happens outside of school.  With an easy to use, always accessible, and dynamic electronic extension of their hand, the present-day weapon of choice, commonly referred to as a ‘cellphone’ or ‘smartphone,’ has easily become the most expedient and effective form of verbal (and non-verbal) discord vis-à-vis cyberbullying.  Wielding atrocities and uncurbed cruelty, bullies hide behind a small, protective glass screen as they freely communicate in strings of thoughtless words that are exchanged via text, instant and direct messaging, or any other nefarious means availed to them on unsupervised social media platforms.  Unencumbered by appropriate rules of engagement and apparently …