Bullying on the Bus

I just watched a segment on the Today Show about a father that went onto his daughter's school bus, to confront the kids bullying his daughter. And my hats go off to him. I don't agree with all he said, but his passion to protect his daughter, I can relate to. The idea of my boys being bullied would break my heart.
I have been a victim of bullying on a school bus, of course, this was years ago. I was taunted, spat at, had lit matches thrown at me. I was told to ignore them, and my parents did nothing. I watched a mentally retarded (that is how they were referred at the time) girl being mercilessly bullied. It makes me cry now, thinking about her anguish. She didn't have the skills to fight back, and I became her protector, all less than five feet and 80 lbs of me. I watched a little boy have his football thrown out of the window by older boys. The bus driver refused to stop to get it, until I threw such a fit he pulled over and I went out to the ditch and got it. I can still remember Briton's tears flowing down his face, unable to protect himself from kids twice his size and age.
If the schools won't protect our kids, what message does that send. I would board that bus, in a heart beat.