life times & love

This whole bullying thing is going too far. My mom called me today to tell me that her coworker's daughter tried to commit suicide recently, and she's only 13. She's been bullied to the extent to take her life, it hits home when there's a shorter rope connected to you. I wanted to cry because nobody should want to take their own life, especially that young. She's still so new, so fragile.
There was a period where bullying was just quiet, it was just a group of jerk kids picking on a girl because of her pigtails, or the show she watches is for babies. But now it seems like kids are out for something. Out for blood. There are so many ways to bully now, Facebook, MySpace, texting, and the classic group vs one. I don't understand what their gain is when they see the victim, eyes lowered to the ground, feeling like shit because they're different.
Being different was never easy, it still isn't. There's so many ways to be different now too, gay parents, they are gay, they're black or Asian. Like the array needs to be accepted, it needs to be taught that there is no sameness.
Another thing that bothers me is that the kids take it into their own hands and feel like they can't talk to their parents. Why? The parents are always so surprised when they hear about it, they're active in the school, their kid is happy when seen at home, yet when things get this far it's a surprise. I'm not blaming the parents, because I don't know how things are behind closed doors.
I don't know what to do, because raising awareness doesn't seem to do anything. What can we do?