While I mostly agree with what you wrote about bullying, I must say that sometimes bullying is a real thing. I never really had problem with bullying. When I was in school I didn't know what the concept of bullying was. But looking back I guess I met a classic bully. One of the first days in first grade a boy at least half a head taller than me started giving me a hard time, we fought exchanging punches and eventually wrestling on the ground. That is also how I met my best friend in school, he tried to help me in this fight.
I was always a natural fighter and I trained in judo, sambo and boxing as a kid. In addition to training in the boxing club I had a pull up bar on my door at home and I put one of those small punching bags and was practicing my punches every time I walked by the door. So while that bully boy and my friend were much taller and bigger than me the whole time in school I fought and actually broke two teeth on that bully boy later and I was always defending my best friend from him despite both boys being bigger than me. When we grew up I was still small at 185 cm or 6'1" compared to 198 cm or 6' 5" for the other two. So I would say I never had problem with bullying.
Fast forward about 30 years and our daughter had a real problem at school, she really was bullied, a black boy punched her in the stomach then kept kicking her on other occasions. First we tried to deal with it via official channels at school, but it wasn't helping. I tried teaching her self defense and it wasn't working either. Then we took her to tae-kwon-do and surprisingly her self confidence and kicking skills improved by leaps and bounds and one day boy kicked her again and they started an exchange of kicks to the lower body. Much bigger boy who was bullying many other kids at school stopped kicking, said that she kicks really hard and it was never a problem again.
So the martial art I thought was not a serious fighting discipline was actually more effective than all the super effective and often brutal things (like kicking between legs and scratching at eyes) I tried teaching her.
This is "classic" bullying and it is a good thing. At that age, even with half a head advantage, little damage can be done. It is like peewee football, the hits are relatively just as hard as in the seniors, but have very little force behind them that can do damage to kids. It is play. Not necessarily a nice experience, but a valuable one.
You have 20 cm on me! I was never bullied because of my size though and physically, I could hold my own.
Sorry to hear. This is quite different now, isn't it? As I said above "There is so little compassion and grace in individuals" - when I was a kid, there was no way a boy would hit a girl.
Hopefully, there are no issues in the future.
Though, your story reminds me of a funny incident at school with a boy named "Ben". We were maybe eight or nine and he had started karate and wanted to fight at the lunch break. I wasn't keen at all, but he kept on going and going and going. In the end, he took a fighter pose and said "go", and I immediately kicked him straight in the throat and collapsed his windpipe. He was gasping on the ground. Unfortunately, all the teacher on yard duty saw was me kicking this "poor boy" and I was punished.