Students using PlayStation Portables in the classroom usually are punished, either by getting their devices taken away or being sent to the dean’s office.

Many kids look forward to their 16th birthday not only for the cake, but because that means they are only one month away from getting their driver’s license. If one state senator gets his way, however, that milestone will have to be delayed an additional five months.

Olivia Gardner was a northern California sixth-grader when the bullying began. Diagnosed with epilepsy, she had a seizure one day in class. Many of her classmates started calling her "retard." She switched schools, but the bullying continued, moving to a new frontier, the Internet. Some of her new classmates set up a Web site, the Olivia Haters, on MySpace. She moved to yet another school but found no warmer reception there. She thought of suicide.