I find the current situation with bullying in schools confusing, to be honest. I'm of the opinion that having social friction is good for future socialization. Your coworkers probably won't take your lunch money, but in the adult world most people will run into coworkers and bosses that are just as nasty as that bully in school.

When I was in junior high, I had a girl threaten me a few times. This was more than a bit concerting since the last fight this particular girl had been in, she picked up another student by the throat and punched her in the face into a locker. Repeatedly. At the time I had been in karate for over a year, and a good friend of mine had been taking Tang Soo Do for about the same amount of time. She and I pondered it, and came up with some realizations. I just wasn't experienced enough in karate to really defend myself. A teacher wasn't going to interfere unless we said something and begged for protection. Teachers physically can't be everywhere at once, and we knew that if we tried that, when the girl finally got a chance, I'd be in substantially worse shape. So we figured if everyone in school thought I would be likely to win a fight, they would leave me alone. We had an impromptu sparring match in the hallway next to a teacher we were pretty sure would break it up quickly. Neither of us were terribly adept at pulling punches, so I wound up with a black eye, and she was the recipient of a split lip and an equally black eye.

The girl never said a word to me after that, nor did anyone else. That particular incident taught me something though. It gave me confidence that out thinking someone was better than out fighting them, as well as substantially safer. It also taught me a good bit of how to utilize resources and work out solutions on my own, instead of being told to do something by an adult. I'm not saying that kids should be beaten up in school regularly, but I do think that learning how to deal with many different kinds of people is a good thing in the long run.

Just my 2cents though.

--Ashley