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=Peer Power - Patricia & Peter Adler=

[[image:School_Bullies_H.jpg width="324" height="215" caption="Excluding Outsiders"]][[image:nm_clique_080626_mn.jpg width="320" height="240"]]
How do **you** fit into the school social spectrum? Everyone wants to be liked; but in school, everything revolves around cliques. Cliques are established by students to maintain a hierarchy and to keep everyone where they "belong." But who decides where someone "belongs" socially? Popular cliques take it upon themselves to exclude "dorks" and "weirdos" so they can never have a stake in their precious reputation. Those on the inside don't have it easy, either. The leaders must be appeased in order for those lower on the ladder to maintain their places in the clique. By creating a social system that separates the "best" from the "worthless" while strongly encouraging loyalty through peer pressure and fear, students have successfully halted interaction between people.