Hi Pamela, all,
The usual suspect is unequal application of the rules, bullies do what they do because they know they will not be punished, especially if they bully any witnesses. If the responsible authorities themselves are also bullies then you have a real problem.
The main thing with bullies in government administration is that they will punish any 'whistleblowers' who leak embarassing documents to the press. They do not want their conscious incompetence to becomes public knowledge so they try to put a spin on everything to prortray themselves in a positive light (as the victims) and their accusers as the real problem, to be dealt with accordingly.
When Freedom of Information laws become Freedom from Information laws the bully bells should be ringing loudly.
BTW, my local area (50 km radius) has probably had more gratuitous violence and vandalism clips (posted by schoolchildren) removed from utube than any other comparable area on this planet. While individuals have recently been charged with assisting crimes (bashings etc) by filming them (and then posting the clips) does banning camera phones from schools fix the bullying problem or does it merely hide the problem?
Covering up problems rather than fixing them is what's behind the ogre.
