Of course the "non-bully" should receive some kind of punishment. Otherwise you'd have fights going on all the time - and much of the time administrators/teachers are coming into the situation without knowing exactly what happened - and often wouldn't get the true story from either party or those around the fight. I am happy he did what he did, but honestly, do any of us know the history of these two? Do we know if the big kid had been in any other fights? Maybe so - I welcome the info, would be interesting to know.
Sorry, Wease - trying to blame this on the educational elite is weak, IMO, but not unexpected. I think Cie is dead on the money here. I mean the big kid did something really dangerous in response, and broke the other kids ankle - after not receiving all that much serious punishment. What if he'd lost his balance and dropped the kid and broke his neck instead? To let his re-action go with nothing doesn't make sense. I'd be quite pleased if he was my son and did it, don't get me wrong. But you can't let that go on in a school with no reprimand.