[jimbokun]

"Sure, there were dicks, but who cares about them?"

The real problem seems to be school violence and bullying, and it seems that in the U.S., at least, this is a non-trivial problem.

Dicks you can just ignore are one thing. Dicks who beat up kids smaller than them or pick out kids to ambush with their buddies, cannot be ignored. Sounds like this was not the case at your school, which is great. But it changes everything when violence is involved, and explains why unpopular "nerds" could display exclusion and paranoia, literally as a survival mechanism.

In schools where violence is not widespread, I think Rory's comments have more validity.