MEDIUM RARE Jullie Y. Daza Gender equality demands that girls be acknowledged as bullies, too. Their bullying can be just as cruel, in the form of verbal-psychological abuse. I’ve seen girls bullying girls and heard stories of such incidents happening in “exclusive” schools where the rule is to be prim and proper, most of the time anyway. But before we go there, two days ago the most notorious boy bully who caused his school to be bullied in social media has been dismissed, officially, as of Jan. 3, 2019 after the long Christmas holidays. He has not been expelled, which is not the same as dismissed. Only DepEd may expel a student and keep him out of any school forever. Until DepEd does so, the kid will be enjoying his notoriety more than an education-free future looming ahead. What about his parents? How did they react to the video showing how gleefully their son kicked and bloodied the nose of a helpless, though taller, victim in the comfort room? Did they sense the maniacal arrogance, the way he gloated as if he were a champ, a triumphant gladiator? That’s the disturbing part of the message that is the medium. As for the friend who shot the video, in police lingo he is very much an accessory. He, too, is under investigation by school authorities. We girls do it differently. We may not know how to punch and knock out an opponent. We do it so well that when the victim and her parents complain to the teachers, all they can say is, “Just avoid their company” and it will be faith, hope and charity as usual. We pick on girls for their size, their shyness, because they don’t laugh when we poke fun at the class idiot. My niece pulled out her 12-year-old on account of a classmate who was constantly badgering her with questions like “Why aren’t you using a Kate Spade bag?” and “When will you change your coin purse for a Gucci wallet?” Five years previously, another girl in another school was so afraid of the seniors who called her names, embarrassed her in the canteen, spread lies about her, that she refused to go to school. Her parents sold their house, moved to a faraway city and enrolled her in another school, all because a bunch of dimwitted school officials had never witnessed girl bullies in action.