The thing for me is that I can vividly imagine an exact situation where this teacher would say this and I'd reply "that analogy is kind of a huge stretch but I think both agree there's an issue". And we'd move on because we both know that teacher is using colorful language for effect and that's not really the point of the conversation.

And the actual issue at hand is something I'd describe as a kid being "obliviously unfair". As I mentioned, it's a set of behaviors and attitudes that you know isn't cool but is very difficult to articulate why exactly.

Where I disagree with the article is that I wouldn't let what I consider to be oblivious unfairness to fester for months like some sort of experiment. Instead, I'd just make the executive decision to drop the diplomacy and just complain about the bad behavior right there and then.