Personally, the students at my school that I've seen are too outspoken and often cause other less open students emotional or verbal harassment (sometimes physical). Seriously...
The thing we need to do is to encourage the students to be more confident, yet subtle with their words to the bullies because we all know that the bullies themselves don't give much of a single fuck about the anti-bullying programs. You don't want the students to be so confident that they are beaten afterschool, yet you also don't want them to go and cut themselves, do drugs, and etc. because of all the pressure being put on them.
On personal view, I think that the reason why most people let themselves be affected by bullying is because they don't see the insults as lies. They are being baited into thinking that those insults are true to themselves and let them lower their self-esteem.
The main thing you have to know is that: " If you know it's not true, then don't believe it". Are you a lowlife drug addict? If not, don't take the insult. Are you ugly? No, of course not.
Don't let those bitches fill your head with lies and bring pressure upon you. Your better than to believe the crap they say.