Sandbox / School Bullying Is Harmless Wick Check

It has been brought up here that the examples for School Bullying Is Harmless seem to list mostly aversions.

Aversions and Subversions (43/60)

• Criminal Minds: UnSubs (Seasons Eight to Ten): Ruthlessly subverted. Ronald and his friend Riley were both victims of repeated bullying in school, being abused heavily and publically humiliated, the teachers proving Adults Are Useless by forcing the victims and their bullies to shake hands as if that would solve anything. Riley eventually couldn't handle it and was Driven to Suicide, which caused Ronald to snap, dropping out of school and beginning his years long revenge plan, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Aversion, not subversion
• Cucumber Quest: Subverted. The humiliation Panpipe received from Mandolin at school drove him to become Count Legato. Aversion, not subversion
• Danganronpa Kill/Cure: Averted. Shoko being constantly bullied for his height has left with him some serious anger issues.
• DRAMAtical Murder - Main Characters: Averted big time. Mizuki was violently bullied at school because of his darker skin tone, which traumatized him greatly.
• School Days: Are you stupid?! Regardless of how Makoto treats her, it's at least implied that Kotonoha has some severe emotional and mental issues that were caused, in no small part, do to her being bullied. She gets harassed by no less than 5 girls during a single playthrough (usually for her big chest size). It's probably why she's so attached to Makoto in the first place.
• Seraphic Blue: Averted. Three of her classmates tried to rape her and drive her to commit suicide, only for Doris to kill them in self-defense, worsening her already grim school life.
• Spider-Man: The New Animated Series: Heavily heavily subverted as his origin episode shows the consequences bullying can have on people. Max already had low self-esteem and didn't hang out much with others. Just as he was improving Doug and his cronies kept messing with him, culminating in him getting stuffed in an assaulted by paint guns in a hazing ritual. The poor guy finally snapped and killed Doug with his own electricity. Aversion, not subversion
• The Young Protectors: His situation was a subversion of type 3. He was bullied as a kid for being weaker than other kids his age. Then he got his powers. Sadly, this was his Start of Darkness, as after the deed was done, he had to go on the run. Aversion, not subversion
• ViVid Strike!: Averted hard. She tried to treat her bullies as harmless nuisances who would get bored eventually, they did not. This eventually led to her being unable to be there when her grandfather died, her brutally beating the bullies back, and a massive host of issues that followed her afterwards.
• Cain: Like Hell it is. The bullying Izuku received (and keeps receiving) from Bakugou and his lackeys at Aldera School have almost destroyed his self-esteem and have left him a fearful Nervous Wreck. Toshinori and Inko themselves do not believe in this trope and are horrified by the depths Bakugou is willing to sink to in order to demean and destroy Izuku.
• Divided and Entwined: Very much averted. The racist bullying Hermione and other muggle-borns face at the hands of students and staff isn't just soul-crushing, but Hermonie knows that such mistreatment only opens the door to further prosecution.
• Monster Prom Senior Year: subverted. Apparently getting her favorite toy destroyed by bullies as a child is what set Vera off on the path to becoming a ruthless criminal mastermind and even as an adult she STILL isn't over it.
• Resurrected Memories: [spoiler: Greatly averted as it's revealed that when Ember was alive, she was severely bullied by the popular students, most especially by a girl named Alexandria Green. It's obvious that the bullying, along with several other issues she had, is what jaded and embittered her into becoming an Evil Diva in the first place.]]
• Type-2 Hero: On Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Like in a myriad other stories, Midoriya gets quite the hefty upgrade in angst. Not only does he avert the School Bullying Is Harmless trope, but he even lost an arm thanks to Bakugo.
• Drillbit Taylor: This gets averted. Considering Filkins's bullying can extend to attempting to run you down with his car or even attempting to kill you with a samurai sword, it's most definitely not harmless, and in fact very dangerous.
• Let Me In: Completely averted. School bullying is portrayed as just as seriously as any other form of abuse and it's obvious Owen's traumatized from enduring constant assaults and humiliations every day at school with no authority figure protecting or helping him, to the point he's developing several psychological quirks: he wets himself at age 12, he fantasizes about killing his bullies constantly and it's implied he doesn't eat very much.
• Tropes N to Z: Averted, but when Boscha's the main perpetrator, do you really expect anything else? Although, even after she's taken by the Train, the non-Boscha bullying is also shown to be quite damaging, especially with Skara.
• Blubber: HELL NO.
• Family Skeleton Mysteries: Subverted in book 3, where the consequences of bullying are shown to be very serious. To the point where a girl was Driven to Suicide by a group of four cyberbullies. One of them finally confessed to being responsible... and was murdered in return, setting off the plot of the book. Aversion, not subversion
• The Chronicles of Taras: Averted. Sandra is implied to be as quiet, frightened and lacking in Self-Esteem because of being physically and verbally tortured by the popular girls and their boyfriends in her Connecticut Hometown. It can be argued she's attached to Taras because Taras doesn't take anything from anyone, and behaves the way Sandra would like to.
• A Silent Voice: Averted. The manga goes to great lengths to show the brutally realistic depiction of bullying, not only focusing on the students but also on everybody that participates in it, including teachers that acknowledge the situation but do nothing to resolve it. In fact, the reason why it took so long to be serialized was because a group attempted to raise a legal dispute on the grounds that it showed a negative side of Japan's society.
• I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School: Averted. While Fuyuhiko's status as a Bully Magnet is often Played for Laughs, especially once Aika enters the picture, the series also shows the long-term psychological effects this has had on him, such as the severe toll it's taken on his self-esteem.
• Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?: Averted hard. Aizawa received more physical bullying, while Shiori more psychological and social. Both end up becoming highly messed up individuals and will carry the weight of their abuse for the rest of their lives. Shiori has the mental fortitude to forgive and move on, Aizawa... not so much.
• World's End Harem: Averted for Shouta before he was put in cryostasis.
• Zekkyou Gakkyuu: Averted with a vengeance. Whenever it appears, the story shows how much pain it causes to the victim. Especially since Yumi was bullied so badly herself, she chose to cause an explosion and kill herself, along with her bullies.
• Holland (musician): Has talked about being bullied because of his sexuality. He explictly shows the effects bullying can have on someone in Wish I Loved You Better. Aversion that doesn't even state it is one + real life troping
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S2 E22 "Hurricane Fluttershy": Averted, as Fluttershy spends the episode fighting off her trauma of being teased in the past.
• Paperinik New Adventures S 1 E 13 Trauma: Averted: Donald still has nightmares of when he was bullied as a kid. It was also the worst fear that Trauma's powers found.
• Recess S 2 E 7 Gus Last Stand: Decidedly averted. This is a more-or-less accurate depiction of bullying, which not only shows that Gus is too traumatized to go out on the playground but, during the climax, has Gus severely beaten by Gelman. Gus is clearly in pain!
• Static Shock S 2 E 12 Jimmy: Averted; Virgil, Richie, and Frieda are the only ones who stand up for Jimmy, but their influence doesn't stop Nick from bullying Jimmy or prevent him from getting so fed up with the bullying that he honestly thinks the only way to get the bullies to stop is to kill them.
• Heartstopper (2022): Averted hard. Charlie is still suffering from severe self-esteem issues as a result of past bullying; multiple teachers, parents and friends comment on how much damage it did; and both he and Nick are worried that Nick could go through the same thing if their relationship is found out.
• Major Crimes: Averted in "Boys Will Be Boys". The abuse Michelle receives from her classmates is considered heinous. The cast even produced an anti-bullying video released online the same day as the episode.
• Odd Girl Out: Averted and how! The school does not take action until after Vanessa's suicide attempt, when Vanessa's mother comes forward with all of the emails, IM messages, videos and other messages along with various posts from the Hate Vanessa website that Stacy and her that Stacy and her Girl Posse sent Vanessa.
• Waterloo Road: Series 4, Episode 12 involves Asperger Syndrome student Karla Bentham being the target of Michela White's Get-Rich-Quick Scheme by opening up an art exhibition in the Art Room. Things escalate quickly when Karla cannot handle the pressure of students having their sketches be drawn by her. New student Lauren Andrews manages to expose Michela's scheming plan to go behind Karla's back so she could use her artwork for money. However, in the meantime, Karla has gone AWOL and is later found on the streets by Kim. Karla is once again targeted in Series 5, Episode 3, when she is bullied by several John Foster students, with Lindsey James being the worst offender. By Series 5 Episode 4, Michela decides to get revenge on Lindsey after what she done to Karla.
• Groan Ups: Seriously averted, Simon's being bullied has led to him to being an insecure Jerkass Woobie.
• Bokko Youchien: Averted, as Mitarou’s torment at the hands of Kotomi is played seriously and can end with him killing her.
• Lost Judgment: Averted hard. School bullying can be considered the root of all the problems in the game. In fact, the School Stories sub-scenario has Yagami infiltrate Seiryo High School as a outside Club Advisor in order to investigate the rampant bullying problem. The Big Bad thought this was the case in-universe, but learning it wasn't and the attempted suicide of one of his students that came from ignoring it prompted his actions in the game against bullies.
• Physical Exorcism: Case 01: Deconstructed. Not only is Black Driven to Suicide because of school bullies, the school does little to stop the bullies. One teacher, Mr. Lee, tried to tell himself that because he personally survived bullying, Black should be able to do so as well, only to be proven wrong. According to Lucy, school bullying is a microsm of the dog-eat-dog tendencies of society.
• Yandere Simulator: Averted to the point that it's the basis of two elimination methods (and the formation of the Delinquent gang). The Bully clique, led by Musume Ronshaku, will harass the person at school with the lowest reputation. If it's your rival (or some poor student you just needed out of the way), you can use them to eliminate her by having her bullied so badly that she refuses to go to school, or even commits suicide. It it's a Fragile student, then if you bully them badly enough and then lie that someone else is the cause, they will snap and kill the person you indicated before committing suicide.
• Double Homework: Averted. MC was a relatively mild case of a bully prior to the avalanche, but his targets are greatly affected. And then there’s Dennis, who's a souped-up bully.
• Ability No. X: Averted hard. When Kanzaki made a classmate blind and tormented her, she died in a road accident because she was not able to see. This caused her to feel guilty and stopped bullying others. When Kanzaki tried to atone for her sins in an attempt to be enlightened by the priest, not only is she not enlightened, but the priest kills her by using his ability to synthesize a poison which slowly kills her.
• Voldemort's Children: Oh so averted. May overlap with Bullying a Dragon.
• Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot: Type 2 and Type 3... subverted. In "Bully Exposed," when a girl named Madison keeps bullying a girl named Kaylee, the Care Bears advise her to tell Madison how she feels and even give her tips on body language. But when Madison still refuses to stop the bullying, the Care Bears pull off a magnificent Care-Bear Stare and Madison is forced to cool down and explain why she's been bullying Kaylee. It turns out it was a case of jealousy. They do agree to be friends, but if not for that Care Bear Stare...

Straight examples (4/60)

• High School Musical:
  • Chad's actions definitely play this trope as far as emotional bullying goes, with him leading the entire basketball team in bullying Troy about daring to audition for the musical and guilting him into turning on Gabriella.^note Including using his fraught relationship with his dad as emotional blackmail. Despite this Troy never gets angry with Chad and only seems to blame himself for giving in, even though he's obviously the victim of intense peer pressure and everything shouldn't be as fine and happy as it turned out.
  • Taylor's treatment of Gabriella is just as bad, as she records Troy's response without context and shows it to Gabriella, (who struggles with fitting in, and currently sees Troy as her only real friend), completely devastating her. Like Chad, Taylor's never called out for it, everything turns out fine, and she becomes Gabriella's best friend anyway. (And at least Troy and Chad had over a decade of friendship to justify quick and easy forgiveness. Gabriella was a new student and had just met Taylor who up to that point only ever seemed interested in Gabriella as an Academic Decathalon team member).
• Yu Gi Oh First Anime Series Ep 1 The Furious Battle A Shadow Game: Jounouchi wasn't trying to hurt Yugi, at least in his point of view. He was just trying to help Yugi stand up for himself and fight back.
• Degrassi Junior High Season 1 Ep 01 Kiss Me Steph: Joey targeting Arthur and Yick is Played for Laughs.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: When Ashley is bullied by another girl, it turns out to have just been a misunderstanding, and they talk and reconcile.

character, not work POV (8/60)

• The Marvelous Mateo Mandelson: His primary motivation. He knows firsthand that this isn't true, and intends to give those who were bullied like him a chance at revenge.
• Parting Words: Deconstructed. Celestia realizes that this mentality played a part in why the bullying the CMC (and to an extent, Babs) received had gotten as out of control as it did. The adults generally wrote it all off as harmless teasing that the kids would soon just get over and didn't think it could be that bad.
• Balancing My Support Magic and Summoning Magic in a Different World: The entire high-school that Kayu was compelled to attend certainly thought so. Kayu, the victim, strongly disagreed.
• Endgame (2006): The parents and teachers espouse this philosophy in-universe.
• Inda: The older crew on the ship that Inda signs on with all chuckle and approve of the other shiprats and older mids and mates making fun of him and playing tricks on him because he's a landlubber, figuring it's all in good fun and a good way to get him to learn faster, but it's clear that Inda hates it and doesn't find it in good fun at all.
• Himenospia: The staff at Himeno's school largely ignored the heinous actions of Nagisa and the other classmates. Himeno ends up with a twisted sense of gratitude for all of them, as she believes they toughened her up for the trials she faces throughout the story.
• Criminal Minds S 3 E 16 Elephants Memory: The police believes this. Owen's bullies believed this. Reid makes clear that it isn't, for the exact reasons the episode shows.
  School Principal: Look, boys have a way of sorting these things out.
  Reid: They sure do. Right now, Owen is out there sorting it out with an assault rifle. (Reid storms out)
  Hotch: I'm sorry, it's just we've heard those words before, when we interview school shooters.
• S to U: This is the attitude held in many schools and is often why bullies get away with their bullying while their victims receive No Sympathy.

ZCE/Type labels (2/60)

• Gil: Skewered in a strip where Gil watches a television show in which the bully is really not so bad after all and the hero becomes friends with him. Gil is...cynical. Link doesn't work anymore, so no context.
• Littlest Pet Shop 2012 S 2 E 10 Alligators And Handbags: Type 3.

Multiple (3/60)

• Harry Potter – Severus Snape: Subverted. In his own schooldays, he was antagonised by James and Sirius (something that horrifies and disillusions Harry when he finds out). Decades later, he still absolutely hates James and Sirius for it. However, as a student however, Snape himself defended his friend Mulciber's actions to Mary MacDonald as "a bit of fun" when Lily points out that it's dark magic and far worse than anything James or the Maruders done. First part is a clear aversion, second is character POV.
• Archie Comics (2015): Zig-zagged, more often than not played as just a regular part of day-to-day life. Averted in Jughead #7-8: While lost in the forest, Archie, Jughead and Mr Weatherbee get harassed by a series of cruel pranks. It turns out they're stalked by Ted Mantle, Reggie's father, who used to bully Weatherbee when they were the boys' age. Ted dismisses their complaints with "It's not a crime", but Weatherbee points out that, no, actually it very much is ^note  Assault, harassment, property damage... and threatens to press charges unless he lays it off and leads them back to civilization. Before that, it's also shown that nobody at school thought that Ted's constant pranks and harassment was funny, and eventually everyone banded together and ostracized him. The played straight part has little context, once again example is used to mainly talk about aversions.
• Sweet Valley High: Played with. It's averted every time a tertiary character acts like this, showing how it affects both the victim and the perpetrator—no one wants to be his friend, no one believes his sincere efforts at redeeming himself. But it's sometimes played straight with the main or secondary characters—Jessica and her friends often get called out for doing this to others—but rarely explicitly punished, whereas behavior from Elizabeth that could be considered this is rarely even acknowledged.