There’s no disputing that bullying is a problem in schools across the country. It has been an epidemic throughout the history of the public school system and doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

Bullying has never been something that I really understood. When I was a kid I spent my time training my Pikachu on my Gameboy, not harassing smaller children and stealing lunch money.

Bullying made national headlines this week when a 9-year-old boy from North Carolina was told not to bring in his “My Little Pony” lunch bag because it was provoking other kids to bully the young boy.

OK.

Why are kids these days such jerks? It could be because the new generations of Pokemon are ridiculous so kids have nothing to fill the time. Maybe it’s Obama’s fault. More likely it is because we choose to blame the victims rather than the culprits. It’s like blaming the guy who gets beaten by a mugger because his gushing blood stains the concrete in the parking lot he was assaulted in.

Blaming the victim is a common trend in the world of bullying today. And it’s nothing new. It’s estimated that about 30 percent of students in the United States are involved in bullying. The numbers are apparently growing.

What causes these kids to bully? Some people blame the parents for not being strict enough, or for being too strict. Violence in movies and video games are often scapegoats as well. I’ve even heard someone blame J.K Rowling for brainwashing this generation into an army of bullying wizards.

I had a pretty miserable childhood, myself. I was constantly broke, rejected by the ladies, and had the shittiest pre-pubescent mustache northern Michigan ever saw. In fact, I would have been much more likely to be a target since I looked like a pot-head from the Disco era.

Still, I never felt the need to bully anyone. There were a lot of strange little dudes in my class too, but still I never had the desire to be a brute.

If kids today stopped playing Flappy Bird for five minutes and tried to develop some basic social skills, they might not feel the need to harass any person that’s different from them.

School administrations aren’t helping either. Gone are the days when starting a food fight at lunch is cute. No more sack-taps, no more urinating on a friend’s car for fun, no more streaking through the halls during homeroom.

As a society we have gotten too twitchy. We can no longer distinguish between a playful punch in the groin and a malicious act of hazing. Thanks to the all the bastard kids in this country nobody is allowed to ever have fun anymore. R.I.P. friendly pantsing.

Bullying sucks, but unfortunately there’s no easy solution to solve the problem, if there even is one at all. If I had to come up with a solution, I would tell kids to try and resemble a lazy fat stoner, like I did – it works.