My youngest was bullied at the bus stop when he was in first grade by a sixth grader. He lived next door so I went to the parents and told them about it. They took care of it and their son never rode the bus again. His father was a teacher. When my youngset was in sixth grade he was bullied by a high schooler at the bus stop. The high schooler would use drugs at the bus stop and someone told on him. He chose to believe my son did. He didn't. I called the high school and told the principal about it and he took care of it and told me that the older boy would not only not hurt my son, he would be sure that no one else hurt him either when the principal got done talking to him. He then told me the mother of other kids who rode the same bus had told him about the drugs.
When I was a teacher, I had a high school student who was low functioning and the smarter kids would taunt him to make him mad and get him in trouble. One day my student hit one of them. Their teacher told me I had to punish my student. When I asked her what she was doing to punish her students for starting it by being mean to him she told me nothing because they hadn't touched him. Also, that my student hard to learn to get tough emotionally and take it. I told her that I would not punish my student if she let hers off. She was angry with me. I stuck to my decision although I did talk to my student about it and how to react in a more appropriate manner next time. Once the smarter kids found out I wouldn't punish my student if they taunted him until he became angry, they quit. I taught at a center based school for severely emotionally impaired kids in Michigan.