Seconding the last bit, as a child I was seen as an easy target for bullies, being short, sarcastic, nerdy, and a year younger than everyone else in my class. The School never helped, and generally made it worse. Sadly, hitting someone back harder than they hit me made it better.

I would occasionally have to listen to the Principal go through the "Zero Tolerence" BS, but we liked eachother and understood what the situation was under the verbiage. I'd make apologizing noises, get a little detention, and that was that.

But hey, it turns out if you bloody someone's nose, they'll stop fucking with you. Bloody enough noses that fucked with you, and you'll get a reputation that mitigates violence against you and having to use violence to protect yourself. One fistfight a year or so; win, lose, or draw; buys you a year free of bullies. Damn good deal!

Still it's an interesting place I find myself in philosophically, where quothe Tim Barry, "I think pacifists are weak, and violence is wrong".