bullying: to intervene or not?

My six-year-old daughter, Ellie, has been dealing with a bully on the bus. At first we decided to use this as a teaching tool: to teach her to stand up for herself. She did as we suggested and said sat with a friend near the driver.  But one day, after her friend got off the bus, the bully came and sat next to her. Ellie said no. She pulled Ellie's hair. Ellie said no and called out to the bus driver, but he didn't hear her because it was so noisy. Then she pulled her hair again, hard. Ellie said no and called for help again, but nothing happened.

She ran off the bus, sobbing, into my arms. And much, much more information came out. Like how this happened more than once last year. Like how this girl was talking about her to the other girls.  Like how this girl told Ellie to give her one of her backpack charms or she would pull her hair again. (Ellie said no, then the girl "got really angry" and pulled her hair again.)

So I spent an afternoon holding my sobbing six year old daughter, as she tells me of how it  hurt when this girl pulled her hair, but it really hurt when she said mean things about her.  Wiping away her tears as she asks "Why?", trying to explain something that is so beyond comprehension. Wiping away my own tears when she asks how she is supposed to treat someone like that.

I was so upset that I can hardly stand it. And I'm really, really angry. What kind of kid does this? I just want to go to this girl's house and... I don't know what. She's torturing my child over a $1 Hello Kitty backpack charm from Target? Are you kidding me?  And she waits until Ellie's friend leaves then moves up to sit with her!??! This is purposeful harassment. And how the girl never bothers Ellie at school, only on the bus where there are no teachers. 

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