If she'd fought back, she might have gotten injured. Many situations with bullies can't be solved by coaching from the sidelines. In those cases, we may need to consider more direct options. Many parents believe teachers should get involved immediately because they're able to observe and protect our children when we aren't. Yet teacher involvement isn't an automatic solution.
Most bullying goes on behind a teacher's back or after school.
And some parents who involve teachers run the risk of escalating the bullying. One answer is to involve the bully's parents. Cynthia's son Steve faced a bully day after day at recess. When Steve grew nervous and one day refused to go to school, Cynthia and her husband finally called the bully's parents, who readily admitted their son had bullied other children. The two families met together and worked at resolving the problem.