Dear Jennifer -- thank you SO MUCH for your ideas! This one is definitely what I will tell Amanda right away: "encourage her strongly never to respond and if there are witnesses then to respond in a frightened manner." But, FYI, the experts say NEVER engage in a meditation or any other type of one-on-one conversation with a bully. Why, you may ask? Well, see, it is like this. Let's say You are the one being bullied (in some situation or other), and X person is the bully. You or someone wants the two of you to get, for instance, mediation. So, You are very open to the moderator and the Bully in the session that is designed for the two of you to come to some sort of agreement or resolution to the problem. The Bully APPEARS or PRETENDS to be sincere and open. But they are deliberately TRICKING both of you. And perhaps lying, too. The result of this is: The Bully has now learned A LOT MORE ABOUT YOU. That is why the Bully agreed to the collaboration/mediation, or whatever. They wanted to "get more stuff" about you, your feelings, your life, what types of things bug or frighten you... so that they can DO THESE THINGS TO YOU. I advised my friend to call the hotline for age and disability for advice.. This organization will send out a social worker. But I told Amanda to be sure that the social worker does not manipulate her into doing some sort of discussion between Amanda and Betty. (From my own experience with a social worker or whoever it was the organization sent out when I was being bullied by a whole family related to my late [horrible] husband -- the person they sent was 100% incompetent. I told Amanda to be sure that whoever was sent to talk to her be competent, or else to reject the help from that person and ask the organization for someone else.) I advised Amanda never to agree to any face-to-face negotiation with Betty.