Let’s say you’re a teacher and you see the notorious bully, let’s call him Vladimir, walk up to another kid sitting in the cafeteria by himself minding his own business. Let’s call this second kid Vasily. Suddenly Vladimir punches Vasily in the face and takes a bite of his sandwich. Completely unprovoked. The whole school knew Vladimir was jealous of Vasily’s lunch and wanted it for himself but no one thought Vladimir would be quite so brazen.

After Vasily gets punched he stands up, punches Vladimir in the face, takes back his lunch and goes to sit at another lunch table with a group of students who have been nicer to him and more supportive of him and, most importantly, haven’t ever punched him in the face for no reason. Bullies like Vladimir aren’t brave enough to pick on people who will defend themselves and each other so there’s safety in numbers. Everyone knows Vladimir wouldn’t dare to punch Vasily when he’s sitting with a bunch of people who would punch Vladimir right back.

Bullies are easily embarrassed though so Vladimir has a bit of a hissy fit when he sees Vasily sitting with a group of friend— from the safety of the other side of the room, of course! Vladimir rants that he could beat up Vasily and his friends if he really wanted to but he doesn’t really want to and he already took a bite of Vasily’s sandwich anyway which is the only thing he really wanted so nah nah nah poo poo weak losers!

The screaming is obviously very annoying and disruptive to everyone in the cafeteria. As the teacher, is your priority getting Vladimir to STFU? Or is it making sure Vasily is alright? Would you tell Vasily he needs to go back and sit at the lunch table by himself? Would you tell him that he’s “provoking” delicate Vladimir by sitting with friends who will help make sure Vladimir doesn’t punch him in the face again? Or would you tell Vladimir to knock it the fuck off and leave Vasily’s lunch alone?