The kid should know how to defend himself but the escalation of the violence isn’t the answer. Where are the teachers that allow a kid to be bullied for years?
How about this. Send the kid to martial arts school, have a sitdown with the school, the kid’s parents and the local police. If it happens one more time, the bully goes to juvie, the parents of the brat get sued, the teachers get suspended.
I would like the answer to that. I dealt with it for years when I was in school. (I graduated HS in 1977.) even then the teachers couldn't be everywhere all the time. I was a little guy, much smaller than most of my classmates. So I learned at an early age that “if you stand your ground but can't hold it your face will get rubbed in it.” So for years I ran. Bullies had a field day with me. I had few friends.
Then one day it all changed. I don't remember a lot of what happened, but I had had enough. I lost it. I picked something up and started wailing on the bigger kid who hit me. Other kids said I just went crazy.
Got a week's suspension from school, but when I got back, it was like, “Leave Fred alone, he's crazy.” And I had no more trouble.
School employees are trained to hold both students equally responsible.
I told my kids to protect themselves. I don’t care what the school creeps said.