"How to deal with bullies", according to my Dad:

[ShazzieB]

21. EXACTLY.

For me, step 4 has always been as follows: If turning your cheek doesn't work and they attempt to do you harm, do whatever is necessary to get the hell of of there in one piece.

Because putting them on the ground isn't in my skill set, and never will be.

There was only one time that someone actually tried to start a fist fight with me. It was in 8th grade. Out of a clear blue sky, this girl just walked up to me and pushed me, hard. I lost my balance and landed on my butt. Was in a complete state of shock and started crying, which she was obviously not expecting. Through my tears, I demanded to know what I had ever done to her. (She was a year behind me in school, and I barely knew her.) She did not have a good answer for that, just muttered something nonsensical about not liking the way I walked. (WHAT?!) I can't remember what else was said, but she and her sidekick ended up walking away and never bothered me again.

I still have no idea what her beef was with me, and I don't think she knew herself. Sometimes a kid will take a dislike to another kid for no real reason other than that their own insecurities have been triggered in some way. I think I got really lucky with this one. Some kids would have been even more enraged by my demanding to know the reason for the attack. In her case, she realized that she really did not have any reason to beat me up, and all the fight went out of her at that point.

At the time, I didn't think of that experience as a "win," but I eventually came to realize that it was a pretty darned big one. Of course, it only worked out that way because we were girls. I'm sure that a boy would not have reacted that way to another boy crying!