I pretty much concur. The worst part of being bullied for me was that I was punished for defending myself by the adults around me. I got charged with assault in middle school after winning a fight with a kid who chased me to the bus stop with a metal pallet strap whipping me, as soon as we were off school grounds I turned on him and beat him down with a textbook.

We both were arrested and charged, and I was told to my face by a judge that “there is no such thing as self-defense in schools.” Which is not only a bald-faced lie, it’s unconstitutional. You have a right to be secure in your person, and a right to self-defense, well established by the Supreme Court in case law and described in the Declaration of Independence.

I also didn’t get bullied again at that school after that incident. Self-defense is not just a right, it’s an imperative.