text: My dad always told me to walk away too.  He always told me to not be the one who started trouble.  But he also told me not to "run away" either.  His exact words were, if you cannot reason with them or walk away from them, then pick up a stick and knock them in the head.  In other words, do what it is going to take to win quickly and be done with it.  \n\nOf course I remember mom and dad being a bit miffed when I followed this advice literally and used a fallen pecan branch on the head of a kid who was picking on me. (That kid never messed with me again though.)\n\nA few years later, after we had moved to another town, there were three guys at school who bullied me for a while.  I finally had enough and got one of them alone one day.  Frankly, I went berserk on him.  One of the best days of my entire life.  The next day at school I managed to get one of the others alone behind the gym and had a repeat performance.  The third guy avoided me like the plague.  The knots that had been in my stomach since I arrived in that miserable little town were gone and I was able to once again concentrate on school and play and being a normal kid.  \n\nIt is worthwhile to remember that in every school shooting situation I can remember hearing about it was always a kid who was picked on for a long period who wound up being the shooter.\n\nThere is really only one way to deal with a bully and that is to kick their a$$ properly and with prejudice.  They are usually not expecting it since probably no one else has ever stood up to them and they really are not practiced at handling such a situation.  Once usually cures it.\n\nIf you fight a bully and lose the fight you have still won.  Assuming you inflict as much pain on him as possible in the process.  You still win because he will think twice about the value of coming after you again.  If he knows it is going to cost him every time he will turn his attention elsewhere.\n\nWe do live in a different time than when I was a kid, no one brought knives or guns to school back then.  But the principle is the same.  When you walk away from some jerks, they just take it as a sign of weakness and close in for the kill, so to speak.\n\nUltimately, only you can rear your child.  The best you can do is open your eyes wide and make the best judgment call you can.  I wish you well.