As in the second Facebook story making the rounds this week: a Seattle middle school student was visited by the Secret Service because of a status message he wrote about President Obama.

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The 20-year-old said he experienced the 2008 quake while a middle school student in Chengdu, but that Saturday was different because of his proximity to the epicenter.

WSJ: Quake Kills More Than 160 in Sichuan

Peek inside the backpack of Zhou Tao, a middle school student at Beijing's Shijingshan school, and you'll find four grammar texts, three math texts, one chemistry book, two books on physics, five on English, three on political science, not to mention an array of extracurricular and tutorial books.

CNN: LITTLE EMPERORS

The opinions of students, regularly used at institutions of higher education, have been shown to correlate with overall student performance at the middle-school level, said Thomas Kane, a professor of education and economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who has studied the issue.

WSJ: Conn. Joining Teacher Trend

My second brother, as a middle school student, went out every evening to the Potong River to play the trumpet.

NPR: Literature and Lullabies from the 'Axis of Evil'

The festival gave Asumi Kikuchi, a 13-year-old middle-school student, an opportunity to get together with three of her best friends, who are now scattered all over Fukushima prefecture.

WSJ: Displaced Japanese Town Tries to Stay Intact

Another expert in such cruelty is the film's central character, 12-year-old Alex, a gentle middle-school student in Sioux City, Iowa.

WSJ: Bully | The Island President | Wrath of the Titans | Cruel Kids, Weakling Schools, Hard-Hitting 'Bully' | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern