I was bullied in elementary school and middle school. I fought back and generally if not always, beat the main person who harassed me. I mean, I remember in 7th grade one kid used to harass me daily for not taking a shower after gym (which I didn't 'cause the showers involved more bullying). I eventually (2/3rds of the way through the year) picked him up by the heels and slammed his head again the gym locker as hard as I could, let him fall head-first to the cement floor afterwards. He didn't bother me again ... But ... it didn't change anything overall, it didn't stop either me being in the harassed group or harassment at the school.

In fifth grade, however, one teacher confronting the bullying did change the entire tenor of things for that year and the next (then I moved and graduated).

Which is to say, all the posters here hot to recommend fighting back as some kind of solution. Stop, just don't. Schools need systems for stopping bullying and those system are social changes. "What about the fight-backers" is someone's cowboy trip.