Think bullying is just part of growing up? Well, ABC News reports that 160,000 kids stay home from school every day for fear of being bullied, and a Yale University study shows bully victims are two to nine times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. Just because bullying was an accepted part of school life when some of us were young doesn’t mean it should've been. Bullying is a lot more serious than we realized.

And there's another side of the story: the bullies themselves. These kids need help too. Sixty percent of boys engaged in bullying in grades one through nine were convicted of at least one crime by age 24. Whether bullies know it or not, their bullying is a cry for attention—from parents and schools.

TakePart on MSN Causes has dedicated this October issue to National Bullying Prevention Month to spread important information to parents, kids, teachers, and everyone else. Maybe you’ve noticed Brittany Snow, star of Pitch Perfect, on our cover. She's been raising awareness of the issue with the Love is Louder campaign and talked to us about her own experiences dealing with bullying as a teenager and actress. Our story "9 Signs Your Child Is Being Bullied" is a wonderful resource for anyone who is around kids. We also have "The Parents and Kids Guide to Help End Online Bullying," plus more.

The growing consciousness around this issue is one of those rare, wonderful things we can point to and say, see, we are evolving as a people—for good. So enjoy our stories, learn, share them, and by doing so, know that you're helping build a kinder culture.

It was a bullying crime that shocked the quiet community of Northridge in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley. On an April night this year, three teenage girls, ages ranging from 13 to 14, asked one of their mothers to drive them to the house of a schoolmate with whom they had fallen out. Their toilet-papering prank took a grim turn when the girls drew a swastika in maple syrup and wrote "Jew" on the front walk, while another defecated on the front porch.

Identified by school authorities and the police, the teens admitted their crime, and the District Attorney's office shepherded the case to a new experimental court program: Stop Hate and Delinquency by Empowering Students (SHADES). In this court, it's not the prosecutors who pose the difficult and self-challenging questions—it's other teens who do.

"Why would you draw a swastika and write the word 'Jew' on your Jewish classmate's home?" asked one student juror. "What were you thinking when you defecated on her doorstep?" another challenged. The teen jurors spent one morning in court cross-examining the defendants and listening to testimony from the classmate's father, the owner of the vandalized house and the son of a Holocaust survivor.

MORE: What Every Parent Should Know: How to Help Your Kids Deal With Peer Conflicts

The interaction in this court is "not really about guilt or innocence," L.A. County Superior Court Assisting Presiding Judge David. S. Wesley told the Los Angeles Times. "It's about minors being confronted about what they did by their peers. It's so powerful when peers tell you what you're doing is wrong, rather than adults."

These student jurors have been trained extensively for this court work through a program with the Museum of Tolerance. Many of them were drawn to the idea of testing out a future in law; others came to the program to help students their own age right their wrongs and heal. Some teen-crime cases are held on school campuses, but Wesley insists that hate crime and bullying cases be held in a wood-paneled courtroom in Downtown Los Angeles to communicate the gravity and consequence of such cases.

Another recent bullying case heard in this court focused on one middle-schooler repeatedly taunting another with racist and antigay insults and kicking a soccer ball at his head. Yet another had to do with the defendant wrapping a shoelace around a boy’s neck and calling him an antigay slur.

"We see a lot of students using words and symbols without knowing how powerful they are," says Camilo Cruz, the community relations director who administers the teen court. "With young jurors using their critical thinking and asking specific questions of the offending teens, we are trying to get at the root of the issue."

In the case of the student defendants in the Northridge case, Judge Wesley accepted most of the student jurors' sentencing recommendations, and ordered the girls to an eight-hour Museum of Tolerance remediation program, an evening curfew, counseling, community service, written essays, no contact with the victim, no associating with the other perpetrators in the case, and attendance at a human relations youth camp.

This new approach to helping bullying teens move forward in a more positive way seems to be working. In their work with the Museum of Tolerance, the offending Northridge students have had long discussions with Holocaust survivors, interacted with the museum’s hands-on exhibits, and journaled about their experiences. Wrote one, "I spoke with people of all different backgrounds and how horrible their lives have been, and the memories that go with them. It must have been terrible." Responding to an exhibit, another of the offending students wrote, "Some of the Germans knew what was happening to the Jews but they stood by and didn't help. I wouldn’t have done that. I would have fought for the Jews."

"We are very excited about the possibilities of this program," says Cruz. “There's no end to how we can end bullying among youth and help address these issues and educate. This is about examining your choices and learning that we are all responsible for ourselves and our actions."

MORE:
• Alarming: School Bullies Attack Almost Half of Kids With Autism
• How One Parent and One Teacher Saved a Failing School
• Diary of a First-Year Teacher

Because young people practically grow up online, it’s no surprise that bullying has extended to the Internet. In 2012, a global Microsoft study of more than 7,500 children found that 37 percent of those surveyed had experienced some form of meanness online. Online bullying might involve sending hurtful or threatening messages to a target’s phone or through an online game; disclosing secrets or private information; deliberately excluding a person from a group in a virtual world or on social media; breaking into a target’s phone or social media account; or pretending to befriend someone and then betraying that trust.

What parents can do to help prevent online bullying:

1. Pay attention

• Listen to kids. Ask them to talk about their lives. Sit with younger children while they play and explore online. Regularly ask tweens and teens to show you around—what websites they visit, where they hang out, who with, and how they talk to each other.

• Lead by example. Kids learn from what adults do. They notice how you react to stress and see if you treat others with kindness and respect—your family, friends, neighbors, even strangers.

• Watch for signs of online cruelty. Look for kids getting upset when online or texting, or for a reluctance to go to school. Watch, too, for kids being mean to others online. Make clear that they should never bully anyone.

• Ask your kids to report bullying to you. Promise unconditional support. Reassure them that you won’t curtail phone, gaming, or computer privileges because of others’ behavior.

2. Encourage empathy

Ask kids to put themselves in others’ shoes (those of bullies, too).

What parents can do if a child is involved in online bullying:

1. Get the full story. Listen carefully and take it seriously. It may not be simple: the child or teen may be the target of bullying, or may be bullying someone as well. Recognize, too, that kids may be reluctant to talk about it.

2. Together, make a plan. Ask what you can do to help, and make the kid’s answers the basis of the plan. Discuss what each of you will do.

For a kid being bullied online:

• Don’t blame the target of bullying (even if he or she started it). No one deserves to be bullied.

• Advise kids not to respond or retaliate. (Do save the material in case authorities need it.)

• Report bullying to the website or company where the abuse occurred. For example, contact Microsoft at microsoft.com/reportabuse.

• If you feel that your child is physically at risk, call the police at once.

For a kid bullying someone online:

• Try to understand the source of the bullying behavior. (But, don’t let excuses justify the behavior.)

• Be supportive. It’s the behavior, not the kid that is at the heart of the conflict.

• Discuss how the child or teen can make amends, like an apology or good deed for the person bullied.

3. In any case, get help. Find counselors or other experts, trained to deal with kids who have been bullied or have bullied others.

What parents can encourage kids to do to help stop online bullying:

1. Be kind. If a friend is being bullied spend time together, and be a good listener. Reassure the friend with supportive phone calls and texts.

2. Set a good example. Don’t forward mean messages, or use insults, even to defend a friend.

3. Block bullying. Don't reply to or even read text messages and online attacks. Block bullies or change your password. Check with the service—social network site, IM, mobile phone—to find out how.

4. Ask those who are bullying to stop—politely, though, and only if it feels safe to do so.

5. Tell others. Report what’s happening to a trusted adult like a parent, teacher, or coach, or to a counselor or other trained professional. Report the abuse to the website.

MORE: Go to the Microsoft Safety & Security Center for more information.