Certainly it was the most common for me (also California public school). That does not mean I would not bring up the physical violence as the first item in the list! It's the one least open to interpretation.

In elementary school I had a girl in class who the other girls made fun of. There was nothing physical. Boys kind of made fun of her as well, but what really stuck to her was the other girls. She did therapy, but even her therapist told her that she is a hopeless case. Which is obviously extremely unprofessional and terrible. She ended up taking her life in her 20s. It was just mental bullying by peers. It is very sad to think back at the time. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her to deserve this bullying, and peers did it as some sort of self esteem popularity type of thing.

I do remember school being this survival of the fittest type of thing as well. Some were naturally good at it, others not so much, different people handled it differently.

It depends on the school. My daughter’s school seems to be fair. Her 4th grade class seem relatively civilized and happy. My experiences of 4th grade were much more savage. On most days, a gang of boys would wait in the woods until I came by, and they’d attack me and sexually assault me. Eventually, I found I could hide out in the art room until 6 pm when they had to go home. But, that shit lasted until 8th grade. That was such a long time ago, but it still resonates.