When I was growing up, I was told to fight back or suffer the consequences.
The opposite here, I was told not to fight back as it would just make matters worse for me.
Kids and allot of adults just don't know when to hold or when to fold.
Now to the question of just how responsible are kids and adults for the actions of others we interact with day to day.
These 6 bully's had their reasons for being verbally mean to the little girl. Same as an Adult boss who bully's their workers. Parents that bully their children or kids that bully their parents, men that bully woman and woman that bully their men.
A fact of life bullying to get something what one may want or need.
There are the Passive bully's that find a way to bully by with holding their love or companionship, tears and a sad story, manipulation of others. There is a good reason why people cave in when given the silent treatment--passive bullying.
So how on earth were these 6 kids to know they were bullying a very unstable class mate.?
The School it seems had no way to know this child was unstable to this point and the child's mother had not made any move to get her troubled child into counseling or therapy. The mother had not gone to social services to complain about verbal assaults on her child, nor had the child complained to a favorite teacher for help.
This suicide was a tremendous shock to family, the school, and the mother. The 6 class mates must have gone into shock as well especially when the law stepped in. The parents of the bully's I imagine are confused and bewildered at how their lives have been messed up by a child that called another child names and are said to have caused the death of that child.
I would think the 6 bully's have mental issuers of their own. We come full cycle 7 teenagers with mental problems and one comits suicide.
The worse bullying my boys ever got was in military boot camp. Some of the kids could not take it and had to come home, others found a way to excel.
