I meant that it was consequenceless for the bullies ("consequence" being a term from decision theory, where you can compare a consequenceless Prisoner's Dilemma—where everyone should defect—to an iterated Prisoner's Dilemma—where people can take revenge for slights in past rounds, and so everyone should cooperate.) The problem is really that we throw a bunch of kids together who aren't yet socialized, have one another far outside their monkeyspheres, and likely won't see the same faces next year (let alone after graduation), and expect them to play this game without role-models (i.e. mixed-age play) or useful/just arbitration. The bullies are just a symptom of a broken system.

(And, if you're wondering, I was on the receiving end of this. The internalization of the idea that, for them, it was truly just a game, actually somewhat reversed any sort of scarring that could have occurred, although I do admit feeling quite suicidal in sixth grade.)