Boy Fights back bully, gets suspended.

[HairOfTheDog]

From the article: The school responded by citing its policy that says if an altercation takes place, all parties are suspended, not just the bully.

This is fine, imo, when the altercation takes place on school grounds. Just like a bar fight or adult altercation anywhere. Cops come in; they question everyone and dole out the punishment later - same concept here with kids and school administrators. Prep for life outside the school yard and mom's house.

From the article: The trouble with policies regarding bullying is, the act must be repeated. One time is merely harassment, according to the rules. There also must be witnesses.

Most bullies like an audience. Usually witnesses, in my experience. I don't think the act should have to be witnessed or repeated for repercussions to be suffered by the bully, however. Should instead be based on the severity of the act. Quality trumps quantity, imo.
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My dad always told me not to start fights, but to finish them. Works. I didn't get the "walk away" talk and was really never a big target anyway, but did choose to walk away from a few potential scenes, wasn't worth the effort. All depends on the kid as to what strategy works best to avoid bullying. Grabbing a teacher would have been worse than getting bullied or fighting in my mindset. Old school family, maybe.

Lots of focus on the bullying issue these days - I think that's good and participated in an organized anti-bullying campaign a couple of years back. Saw some kids (and their parents) pretty harshly affected by relentless bullying. So long as it doesn't get to the point where just being called a name at school or bumped or something like that is considered "bullying", efforts to prevent/minimize bullying are productive, imo. Some of the activists that I worked with viewed dirty looks as bullying; I found that moronic (and gave them dirty looks ). Defining "bullying" and the punishments needs to be done rationally so as not to incubate a bigger crop of those with hard-core victim mentalities. Pussies aren't much higher on my list than bullies; just cause different kinds of problems.