My school took bullying seriously, no let me rephrase that, my school chose to ignore many incidences of bullying, denying there was even a problem until something happened and they were forced to act. Then they stamped down hard, if the bullying had been serious they either expelled the bully or used corporal punishment, the latter was considered appropriate if the bully was deemed capable of being taught a lesson.
We certainly had the school in one rather sad case and dealt with it carefully and sensitively rather than expelling the ring leader and caning a couple of others the outcome may have been much more satisfactory for both the victim and bullies Unfortunately they seemed to believe once the cane had been applied to the bullies that was the end of the matter.