My mother always told me that bullies are really cowards in disguise. I didnt understand what she meant then, but its so obvious you can see it from the cheap seats.
Now it isnt enough to pick on someone weaker. They team up and outnumber or swarm their victims. Whether its gang mugging someone for their leather jacket and Doc Martens or physically abusing a single girl, bullying is back with a renewed sense of vigor and power. Often the victim is someone who does not mix well socially with the misfits who follow their paths of least resistance to find each other in the back-door vestibules and outdoor smoking lounges, away from things extracirricular, educational, or related to school activities altogether.
Their collective resentments lead to discussions of how the current school athletes and "mean popular girls" shun them and make them feel inadequate. Rather than drift as islands of isolation they now find each other and bounce their collective resentment off one another. Occasionally the right or wrong mix converges to form wannabe gangs of pseudo toughs who target people they know wont be able to fight back even if they want to.
They can also count on the laziness of the school administration who either sidestep the thorny issue or try to downplay these incidents in their schools to preserve their institutions reputations. Only stepping forwar when an actual assault of this nature takes place. It's a gradual process that leads to a gang of 14 or 16 realizing they are free to sexually assault a single victim. A process that begins with teasing, leads to humiliation and confrontations. I'm guessing she went through the wringer even before the assault.
My own daughter was a victim of bullying in her school. Not to the extreme that she was assaulted, ut she received threats, insults to her race, body type, and skin color, and humuliation through collective pranks. I managed to persuade a better school outside of our catchment area to enroll her, but not before experiencing the bull-headedness of her former teachers, principal, vice-principal, Superintendant of Schools, and local Trustee first.