Bullying - when will it end? will it ever end?

I saw a story tonight on TV about a young girl who put a video on You Tube before she committed suicide....you might already know about the video as it hit news headlines just after it. It is incredibly moving and I break down every time I see it. I felt for her, she was screaming for help, had just been diagnosed with depression, but was suicidal. I struggled with being bullied at school enough - but I didn't grow up with the social media that today's teens do. There is no escape from it apart from locking themselves away from socialising with their friends online. Her parents had no idea she was suicidal as most parents don't  and most peers don't. I was never suicidal, but when it comes to depression - you don't tend to broadcast to people that you are struggling  - especially to loved ones, you don't want to burden them.
What disturbed me about this story (which was mainly based in USA) was the lack of care from the schools when it comes to dealing with bullying and in this case it seems nothing has changed. In one case - the victim was forced to apologise to a bully!!!! WTF??
When I was at school, you were told to go to the principal if you were having problems, unfortunately they either didn't do anything, or they did and it got worse. Usually nothing was done until I retaliated and then I would be punished for it. I had some of the nastiest rumors spread about me by people I had thought I could trust. Slanderous rumors that still came back to haunt me a few years ago when I met someone who's sister went to school with me.....she had this idea of what I was like at school, but it was based on the rumors. I think my mother knew bits of what was going on, but I never told her completely - because she had enough to deal with at home without knowing how much I was dealing with. So I shut up and put up with what was going on until I finally left school.
It has made me intolerant of petty high school drama, I cut people out of my life pretty quickly if they start going on with it. As far as I am concerned - I left it in high school, don't need it in my life. It terrifies me that my kids may have to go through it at school. I am doing my best to make them confident individuals, but they also have big hearts and are helpful kids and I don't want them to lose those qualities. I was an easy target at school, I was overweight and I wore glasses. It didn't matter that I was good at sports - the fact that I was very good academically meant it was another target.
The story tonight brought a lot of this back and if you are reading this and were one of the bullies when you went to school - what has it done for you in your life??? Can you do something to change the cycle?? Don't let your kids be a bully. I personally would be horrified if I found out my child was a bully. Sadly it has been found that bullies are generally children of people that were bullies themselves.....maybe it's because these people never felt the hurt that their vicitms did. I loved school for a lot of my schooling, I just hated the lunch breaks, where I would have to listen to the nastiness. Gee any wonder I had self esteem issues.
I don't think Bullying will never exist, but I would like to know that the education systems could give a damn and actually step in where they know there are problems. The cases of suicide by young people is disturbing and scary. I never contemplated suicide, but with social media these days there is no escape for these kids. I hope my kids never have to cope with what I had to at school, I hated it.
I do get some satisfaction out of it - whilst a few of those that bullied me at school are struggling to sort their lives out, I have a wonderful husband and nearly three fantastic kids and some very good friends that are worth their weight in gold.