If your children were bullied at school, what would you do?

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I would initially tell them to fight back by any means necessary. If the bullying was severe enough, I would file a lawsuit against the school and hire one of the best lawyers around.

I would tell my kid to tough up, and tell them to leave him alone. If they persist, i'd tell him to fight back, and not let the bullies get to him. If it persists, I'd talk with the bullies parents and the school. If it still persists, I'd bully the bullies parents, personally.

i taught my kids how to beat the ever-loving snot out of any bully that even tried to make them their next victims. true i have had to pick up my kids from the principals office or the police station but never from a hospital or a morgue.

stand up.
fight back.
make them regret ever laying eyes on you.

Get the school to enforce their "no bullying" policy by calling teachers, principals or administrators and telling them about the problem. There's been a lot of focus in the media lately because of the two young children who took their own lives because they were being bullied. Now is a great time to make the schools enforce their zero tolerance for bullying behaviour policies. Parents who make a fuss now have a good chance of getting the teachers and principals to listen if they mention the two tragic suicides involving kids who were bullied.
A lot of the time standing up for yourself doesn't stop the bulllying and can actually make it worse and cause others who don't normally participate in the bullying to be drawn in. If you bully back they can accuse you of participating in it.

I was bullied at school, but that was back in the 60's and 70's. I even had the vision in one eye permanently damaged by a boy that hit me in the eye. People did not sue as readily back then as they do now, so my parents did not do anything.
My kids have not been bullied, because I homeschool.

My parents insist the only thing I do is ignore it and it would go away.

Didn't work.

I would tell my kid to fight to the first kid that picks on him. Win or lose, he needs to fight back, or try.

Bullies like compliant people to pick on, not people that fight back.

Parents stepping in only makes their life more reclusive from the other students that will paint him as a nerd-inviting more attacks and bullying.

My father taught me to fight back, but in today's world, that doesn't work so well. Schools were a lot more tolerant back then. These days, even if it's self-defense, both students usually get suspended or expelled, thereby reinforcing the the bullying by giving the victims no recourse. It's utter BS. And people wonder why students do crazy things these days, when now they're not even allowed to fight back. It's institutionalized victimizing.

Would I let my kid be a punching bag? No. I'd probably have him trained in defensive arts like judo, which utilize the person's own momentum and body weight against them. This type of martial art is more acceptable because you're typically just letting the person hurt themselves instead of you. It inherently requires you not be the aggressor. All you did was get out of the way or provide a little extra force at just the right spot.

I think any kind of bullying warrants a call to the school. Our school district has a very clear no tolerance policy about bullying. If a kid's stomach is in knots because the class thug has threatened to give him a wedgie and a knuckle-sandwich after school, then that's not an appropriate learning environment. In the U.S. each kid is legally entitled to a "free, appropriate, public education." When the kid can't learn because he's in fear of another student, that needs to be taken care of, and it's the school's responsibility to step in if that fear is interfering with the kid's education.

That doesn't mean every kid should be a tattle-tale at every moment; but no kid should have to put up with being afraid to go to school because of a bully.

I must have been given all sorts of advice as a child, none of it worked.
I was often told to hit them back but there was no way I was able to and any attempt by me just made me look silly I did not have the speed or coordination to fight, I also would find it impossible to tell when a situation was going to become aggressive until it had happened.
Ignoring them will eventually work but it requires a level of self control and pacifism that requires the discipline of a master to achieve.
I would really be put to the test if I had children at school, I would really have to consider all options of working with the school, obtaining appropriate help and/or home schooling.
Most of my school days were a real misery of persistent bullying.

Fortunately by the time I left school I had learnt to socialise and had very few problems in adult life but I still wonder if it was at all necessary to have experienced so much s**t.