I think you have a point, Bowyn, but it's only part of the pic. In all too many schools (and even colleges) jocks are given a God complex by their schools and sometimes even community. Bullying is just one type of obnoxious behavior they get away with that the goths, stoners, and the like would never be allowed to. In extreme cases they sexually molest or even gang rape (at least once they felt so entitled they RECORDED themselves gang raping a retarded girl in the gym and showed it off), and even then they are sometimes given a free pass. School faculties that are zero tolerance over a pair of knitting needles or showing too much skin have been known to even try to keep their jocks from being arrested for gang rape (that time the jocks recorded themselves gang raping, their principal tried to keep them from being arrested, and IIRC, tried to destroy the footage, and he also refused to get help for their victim).
My school was like that. The cheerleaders drove at least one girl to attempt suicide, tormented others, and even got away with putting one in the hospital. The jocks would bully--and I mean the violent kind--right in front of faculty and the victims were told by the school (and at least some parents agreed) that their victims--typically goth, gay (or perceived as such), geek, etc--brought it on themselves by agitating others with their weirdness (of course they were also told to "be themselves" at other times as well
). On game days at lunch the jocks would put several tables together, literally throwing kids out of their chairs if they refused to move, and the faculty saw it, did nothing, and came down on any kid who resisted for their lack of school spirit. And one boy I saw them trip, push, shove into walls, etc, right in front of me and the school faculty (and worse was done to him when no one was around) one day brought a knife to school and stabbed one of the jocks when they ganged up on him again in the lunch room. Of course the faculty acted shocked and claimed they knew of no problem (liars) and the stabbed boy was given sympathy while their victim was sent to a reform school.
The cheerleaders ganged up on me though when I attacked the head cheerleader it was one on one until her football player boyfriend lifted me off her and punched me so hard that I couldn't stand as I had no balance. My male classmates then tackled him and beat the crap out of him. The next morning I was called into the Principal's office and he KNEW what those jocks and cheerleaders did and didn't care. Even though my face was so battered I talked funny he even tried to guilt me over the boys beating up the football player who punched me in the face because the player would miss the next game. The boys who beat up the jock all got suspension (some in school and some out of school) and I was given in school suspension as well. The football player and the cheerleader just got their sympathy.
And crap like that goes on in all too many schools. And it's the jocks. If the goths were to beat up on people in the lunch room, if they were the ones to throw kids out of their chairs and take their table, if they were just as obnoxious as a jock, the school rightly wouldn't tolerate it as it disrupts the learning environment. But they WILL tolerate and ENABLE jocks to terrorize others, and they know it and take full advantage of it, even feeling entitled to it. And for that to change the schools have to be held accountable as well.