[Anonymouse]

The children themselves shouldn't tolerate the bullies. Never mind all that wishy-washy liberal crap - it does no good for a bullying victim to tell a teacher and thus have the bully 'talked to' or 'counselled'. That does not solve the problem. If anything it'll make things worse because it won't take the bully long to figure out who ratted on him.

There is ultimately only one answer to a bully: stand up to him. Don't just stand there and take it - whack 'im one! Don't bother arguing with me; I know it works. At primary school I was being harassed (only verbally, but that didn't seem much consolation at the time) by some gort or other. My family knew about it, and kept telling me for years what to do. I didn't, because I prided myself on being more intelligent than that and didn't want to descend to his level. What I hadn't realised was that my principles were being wasted on this *******.

And then one day I snapped. I saw red, and the events of the next few seconds I got from witnesses since I have no clear memory of them, viz. I punched him so hard he went down, he didn't get up for over a minute, he had a shiner for nearly a week - and I got what would now be described as serious street cred in the playground. It solved the problem. After that, not only did this git never bother me again, I don't think he ever even spoke to me again. There were one or two other would-be bullies, but they made damn sure to leave me alone. NitroNutter mentioned 'a regular victim that does stand up for himself' - if he stands up for himself, he will no longer be a victim. Bullies are cowards, and won't bother with anyone who fights back.

All the counselling in the world won't stop a bully being a bully. Having his victim turn on him will. Admittedly, when we're talking about weapons being used it becomes an entirely different matter, but the way bullying in general is dealt with in schools today - i.e. not dealing with it - is totally wrong. Vulnerable kids, and kids who are singled out because they're a) unusually short, b) unusually tall, c) unusually intelligent or d) have some unusual physical characteristic, e.g. large birthmark, should be taught to stand up for themselves - because when they go out into what we laughingly call the real world, you can be bloody sure no-one else will stand up for them. Such lessons must be learned at school. Learning them as an adult is too damn late.

As for this lad, if he really feels he's in danger he should take a self-defence or martial arts course; protective clothing isn't the answer. And if I were a teacher who discovered this lad opening a large can o' whoop-ass on someone with a knife, for me there'd be no question as to who was the offender. An unarmed kid against one with a knife? Please. That's a no-brainer.