I agree with the others; don't feel sorry for it. It doesn't matter if the one you hit wasn't the ringleader; he still joined in. And who knows, maybe that incident knocked him away from a path towards being a bully himself.

I have a sweet memory along these lines; on the very last day of middle school. I forget what the provocation was, but I fought back in much the same way you did. I got sent along to the deputy head, of course. But here's the odd part; rather than going to her office, she sat me down on the benches overlooking the playground.

After rather half-heartedly chiding me for losing my temper, she asked: "Did you hit him hard?"

Stunned, I replied in the affirmative.

"Good," she said. "Maybe that'll knock some sense into him."

That one candid comment sent me off to upper school with the wonderful reassurance that, despite appearances, there were teachers on my side against the little shits who like to make life miserable against everyone else, even if they couldn't admit to it.

School got considerably easier after that.
(Musuko, Fri 28 Nov 2008, 17:48, 1 reply)

Thanks all....
Just to be clear, I agree with you all completely about fighting back, and I did, against everyone, even when I knew I'd lose, because I think it's very true that you have to not let them get away with it. If I have kids and they're bullied, I'd definitely tell them to do the same and not take any abuse from anyone.

It's just that this guy probably had it even worse than I did, and had never said anything like this to me before, and I was really nasty to him. It made me see that I was in danger of being a nasty little shit myself.

Musuko, I like that story - I think lot of teachers feel like that. Most of the ones I know do...
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Fri 28 Nov 2008, 21:50, closed)