Bullying was (at my school) an unfortunate reality.
My brother (year younger) was born with a congenital problem (ptosis) in both eyes which required frequent surgery (poor sod had 9 operations with weeks of recovery for each before he was 11).
This obviously made him a target for bullying and since the school was doing nothing about it I ended up stepping in to sort things out.
When I was about 8 I found my brother and a group of boys in one of the classrooms at lunch time, my brother was curled up on the floor sobbing with one boy sat on him and the rest where jeering.
I picked up a chair and waded in and I really wasn't pulling any punches.
When my mother came to pick me up from the school I was sat outside the headmasters office with the bullies.
We went into the office the headmaster started saying how my behaviour was unacceptable and that I couldn't just assault other pupils in that way.
At which point my mum interrupted "Ben isn't in the slightest violent, he's never had any issues with fighting at this school and yet he felt the need to use a chair to protect his brother, who we both know is getting bullied as you've seen fit to punish Ben I fully expect you to punish the bullies as well and if you don't you can be assured will be going to the local newspapers about the endemic bullying problem, I will also be writing to the Governors and the Local Education Authority", this was in the 80's, parents didn't complain then like that.
I was out of school for 3 days, my mum took me to the bookshop and said I could pick any three books I wanted.
My brother didn't get bullied again til secondary school and he dealt with that himself.
I learnt a very valuable lesson that day - stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves and fuck the consequences (I also learnt that my mum was a badass).