Christian Stanfield, a 15-year-old student at South Fayette High School in metropolitan Pittsburgh, is a bona-fide hero. Christian had been relentlessly bullied for months by two kids in his class, and finally decided to take action.

Since reporting bullying incidents to school authorities never — repeat, NEVER — results in expulsion or even serious punishment for the bullies, Christian decided to audio record them on his iPad. What he came up with was pretty ugly and disgusting.

His mother then went with him to the school and played the recording to the principal. Result? The school made Christian erase the evidence, then charged HIM with disorderly conduct and wiretapping. Fortunately, the Allegheny County district attorney has enough grey matter to have already announced that he is withdrawing all charges.

This is the exact kind of thing I wrote about in my 34-part Cho Factor series back in 2007 after the Virginia Tech massacre. Having experienced six children make their way through the K1-K12 battlegrounds, not to mention my own experiences in school, I will repeat the words of an elementary school teacher who once told me in confidence, “All bullying is teacher inspired.”

After all the bad experiences I’ve had with teachers and school administrators, it repulses me whenever I hear talking heads and their guests on television laud them for their “tireless efforts to help our kids learn.” A small percentage, maybe. But the unspoken truth is that a majority of teachers, in both public and private schools, are, at best, apathetic when it comes to bullying.

Which would be bad enough, but my own firsthand experience made it clear to me that between 10 and 20 percent of teachers actually encourage bullying (usually by sending subtle messages to the bullies that they have a green light to go after Johnny, because he’s a “snitch” and is making waves), and many of them actively participate in bullying handpicked students whom they know are vulnerable.

Anyone who thinks that what I’m saying is an exaggeration either grew up in a glass bubble or was one of the inner-circle of kids who are above the fray and are treated like royalty by teachers and administrators alike. You know, the old “jocks rule” slogan that served Columbine High School in Colorado so well.

Having uncovered actual conspiracies to cover up evidence of bullying, I may be a majority of one, but I favor criminal penalties for teachers and administrators who blatantly bully or engage in trying to cover up bullying by their students.

As with so many things in life, the real problem is not being addressed. To parody Ronald Reagan’s famous words: Teachers are not the solution to our children’s problems. Teachers ARE the problem.