Good for you for standing up for yourself but this kind of stuff should wait until you're outside of school grounds to avoid trouble

Good on you for standing up for yourself. Haha although you got suspended, just take it as a day of celebration :)

Oh, please. It still sounds like it was pretty worth it to me.

I was expelled in 8th grade for the same thing, having been bullied for several years prior. I was actually relieved that I wouldn't be seeing these classmates anymore.

What type of bullying was going on? Was it just name calling and insults or physical? If it was just verbal bullying you should have been the bigger person and walked away because people will always going to have negative things to say about you, and you can't punch everyone in the face who talks about you. Now, if you were being physically harmed then good job and the suspension was worth it.

If the school wouldn't do anything about the relentless bullying, I don't blame you one bit for standing up for yourself.

While I support your decision in this matter since your school failed to uphold the mandatory anti-bullying laws, here's some advice on what to do if it continues. One: Since this bullying has been ignored by the school, you can file a formal grievance against the bully and staff- it probably won't remove the suspension from your file, but if you and your parents play it right, they could remove it from your record. At the very least, the bully should get in trouble too, especially if you've filed complaints with teachers and/or tracked incidents. If you haven't, start documenting them and filing complaints from now on. Date, time, location, and type of bullying. Even if you don't have evidence, you and your family should still speak to the head of the school board now. They might decide to be a decent person or to at least try to keep quiet their disobedience of state laws about schools having to have anti-bullying regulations and having to enforce them. Especially if you mention course of action number two, if they try to refuse to acknowledge the issue. Two: As the bullying has been by the same person over an extended period of time, and is obviously enough to make you feel threatened, you can look into pressing harassment charges, possibly even assault and/or battery depending on types of bullying involved. While the other student could potentially counter-sue, unless you live in a very small town where his family has connections everywhere, you should have the better case. At the very, very least, the harassment charges should stick. I'm not a lawyer, and I am not guaranteeing it will work, or that you should/have to do it, but I wanted to make it known to you that it is an option. Three: You/Your parents could try to ask the police precinct if they would be willing to send someone to go to the house(s) of your bull(y/ies) and explain the laws they're risking breaking/have broken. Obviously I hope that you don't have to do any of this and that the busted lip was enough of a point for the bully to understand. If not, it's a it unfortunate that you had to lash out because it will make your case harder- however you decide to pursue it, if you even do- especially if your complaints have 'gone missing' like so many schools do when the bully is 'popular.' However, pursuing some form of action should improve things for you for whatever duration you have left at that school. It could also improve things for kids after you, since it might make them realize that not all students are going to let some assholes with self esteem issues trample them so they can feel better about themselves. Anyway, enough babble. Try googling "Tennessee anti-bullying laws"- go over the information with your parents, who are hopefully in your corner if they've got their heads on straight- and discuss what course of action you all would prefer or think your best shot it. Good luck, I hope your bully's injury takes a while to heal. A long while.