I think knowledge of self defense is a good idea for anyone, child or not. But I should give some context since this debate risks taking on a life of it's own.

My son is normally not picked on. This is new territory for us. He's one of those happy kids that gets along with everyone, popular or not. The anomaly of this incident was caused by an altercation my son had with a different kid a year ago. This involved that kid picking a fight with my son who, I'm happy to say, defended himself very well. The instigator got in trouble, my son did not.

The kids on the bus yesterday were friends of this other child and for whatever reason, they chose yesterday to attack. This is what I've learned through the course of conversations with the school. My son didn't have an opportunity to fight back as he was pinned from the very beginning.

To be honest, I'm less concerned now with my son's well being (because again, he's well liked) than I am with my own. I completely snapped last night, spiraling into an unusual mental and emotional state that I don't even fully remember. It started with absolute outrage but the emotions kept coming and building and at some point I guess I sort of shut down. This is not good. If I'm going to lose my mind every time something happens at school, I have a long 18 years ahead of me. I'd like to better understand what happened yesterday and develop better tools to defuse the reaction.

Thanks again for the well intentioned support from everyone.

Cyran0