I ' m from the UK and when I was a kid there wasn ' t such a strong no tolerance policy . I think it ' s fucked up that the bullied kid will get punished for defending himself , but on the other hand , if he just spoke to his parents or a teacher , something could be done . On the one hand my brother was bullied badly and one day he snapped and beat the shit out of his bully . The guy left him alone after that . Violence worked that time . When I was a kid I wasn ' t exactly bullied , but there were certain kids who weren ' t very nice to me . We were getting changed after PE and a bunch of them started slapping me on the back , they were trying to see how much they could cover my back in red hand prints . There were about five or six of them , and I probably got slapped about twenty times . They all found it hilarious . I tried to stop them when I could , but I was trying to get my clothes on as fast as possible so I could get out of there . When I left I was trying to hold back my tears , but some girls noticed I looked upset . I broke down and told them what happened and they helped me relay the event to a teacher . The boys all got detention and they never touched me again . On that occasion , it was that simple . There are always other options .