If it is assault, why not simply bring charges against the kid?

Bullying is part of life, time to wake up and come into the real world. Even in the corporate world full of professionally educated people you have bullying. Mum and Dad won't always be there to protect little Timmy so better he learns early how to deal with it. Do your kids play any sports or are they coddled at home by overprotective parents and playing video games? The best thing you can do is toughen them up by putting them into a physical sport like hockey/football where they can become more assertive and build a group of friends from their team mates. Bullies pick on easy targets, and if your kids are an easy target then you are to blame for raising them to be as such.

You apparently have no idea what you are talking about......

How does one deal with it in the corporate world?

Kids don't have an HR department to which they can go to cry their eyes out.

Didn't read the entire thread, maybe someone already brought it up.

What you describe was not "just" bullying, it was a tangible physical attack.
The police needs to be brought in. No the bully will not go to jail, being a school kid but he will be registered, it will have an impact on his parents as they will have to deal with the problem.

Maybe even some social authorities will be brought in. While this is not your part of the problem: There is usually a reason a school boy becomes so extremly aggressive.

In my previous experience, HR were the bullies.

I'm guessing there's a very high chance that person has been bullied at some point in the past, either by other school kids, siblings or parents.

Probably distorts their sense of it being wrong, too, if it has been sustained.

Exactly this is the reason for which some of us want to prevent that sort of behaviour from perpetuating itself.

First and foremost, thank you to all who posted, even those collecting "groans" - the discussion is not a simple one and cannot be dealt with binary.

I attended an evening lecture on the topic organized by the college in Coppet, and I must say, hearing the view of the school panelists + the book author (apparently specialist in the field, Mme. Dayer) has broadened my view.

It gave me yet angle + how little I know on handling the issue. My takeaway is that NOBODY, and I mean neither the school, nor parents, nor police, nor random witnesses, can turn a blind eye. You let this slip? You stay quiet? Essentially, you are equally to blame.

The College was (as anticipated) having hard time going firmly on "zero tolerance" policy, tiptoeing around the equality of abuser and abused, the need to hear both sides of the story, how they are in a tough spot ("yeah, imagine I need to call the parents and tell them their child is a bully"), blah-blah... But in this 2+hrs discussion, some good items transpired. My summary below:
- the law on education has provisions on the topic (I am yet to find and read)
- schools CANNOT (despite innate urge) shed responsibility and are implicated by default
- police CAN and SHOULD be notified when things cross the verbal space and physical aggression is in play
- if you witness it, you must act. Suggested interventions were simple (none involve physical enforcement like in the video I posted earlier): step in, say "stop", accompany the victim to school staff and request this is on record. For violent things, call the police. Just don't stand by, walk by or do nothing.

Reality is, most of the bullies have FAT FILES, as in 40+ reported aggressions before council is formally assigned. Rare cases involved victim suicide, so the natural question is - should all witnesses wait for something extreme to step in? My personal takeaway is - instead of shouting at the school for not doing zero-tolerance, walk-the-walk on my side: if I witness it, act to stop it, all the way (letters, calls, reports, whatever is needed). I should do my part.

Something mentioned by one parent that I think would help - school staff, like all regulated sectors (government or private) absolutely hate paperwork with superiors/supervisors. So, when you give your precious 15min to write that letter, be sure to copy the school, the police, the canton + the education body you find in sight. This does 2 things: a) nobody can ignore and not respond and b) implicates ALL who should do something to formally do so (or waive this responsibility in a written manner).

Apologies for the long update but I started the fire, need to keep it going.

Again, thank you for chipping in!!!

TL;DR. You must act, you must not nuke the site from orbit.

bobby was someone continually bullied by his boss, but had to take it as he needed the job/money. one day, he was late to work and the boss had a go at him. he replied with a menacing undertone: "i stopped by your house on the way to work. nice family you have." boss immediately phoned home to check all was ok. of course it was. bobby was no monster. but he planted a seed of fear in his bosses mind.

Hmmm, reminds me of the threats: "Ich weiss, wo Dein Haus wohnt" (I know where your house lives).

This is ordinary civil law. Perhaps some school law extends or clarifies that, which would be a Cantonal matter or even communal, but start with civil law.

Theparents have the right but also the duty to care for their children the best they can. The school (*), and its teachers by extension, assume that duty the moment the child enters the school premises to go to school, according to the bfu (can't translate bfu, Beratungsstelle für Unfallverhütung) up to 15min before school starts.

(*) Applies likewise to anybody else who acts in the parents' stead, including the babysitter, the godmother who takes them on some journey, the grownup neighbor who takes them along for trip to the mall, the tour guide, etc. Of course you can't expect the same from a 14yr-old babysitter and a 45yr-old teacher with 20 years professional experience.

Not true in my experience. The school my son attends takes bullying VERY seriously - including what occurs on the way to and from school.

It is if you allow it to be. That's why it needs to be dealt with in the proper way - in this case with the involvement of the school and parents.

We have moved countries often and at varying times my children have been bullied. In an egregious case like the one OP observed, one should absolutely bring it to the administration's attention in my view.

That said, if one finds one's child continually bullied/traumatized then I think the parent should work to help that child/"victim". Self defense classes and maybe seeing a therapist if the bullying persists. Bullies definitely "target" and if their child is the target repeatedly, they/the child need to learn coping mechanisms.

Tricky on all levels with which to deal . But I agree with many posters here that bullying exists in the workplace and one needs to acquire the skills beforehand - particularly if one has a a child who is persistently bullied...

Dude you seem clueless and as sensitive as a rock. Some kids literally cannot defend themselves mentally or physically from PERSISTENT bullying. In these cases where they are subjected to targeted campaigns the parents and authorities MUST step in to help remedy the situation. Kids can be affected and mentally scarred in a lifelong fashion from bullying, some small percentage as well all know even commit suicide because of this stuff.

Simply telling them to "toughen up" and forcing them to become more alpha may work for some but it is a recipe for disaster with many children and simply adds even more pressure to an already intolerable situation.

Kudos to defcon3 for being a great parent in a difficult situation.

Probably the people working in HR were the bullies when they were younger as well. It just shows that bullying needs to be addressed as early as possible, otherwise it stays with those concerned and reappears in the workplace.
The negative economic consequences that workplace bullying inevitably costs companies in the long term are not to be underestimated. Frequent change in staff, poor atmosphere, poor performance, sick leave, to name a few.

HR are representing the company's' interests, not yours and don't ever forget that

It needs to be a two-pronged attack. Sure the victim needs help with their confidence and a strategy for coping but you can be sure, when your child is no longer a target for bullying, another child will be.

That happened to us when we moved a couple of years ago. One parent was relieved that their son was no longer a target for the bullies but that was only because our son was the fresh new victim.

That parent, incidentally, helped run a help line for suicidal children here.