Dont take away a childs educations for defending themselves

In WV there is a "zero tolerance policy" against violence. While at first that sounds like a great thing, the policy takes it to extremes. If a child is bullied or hit and they fight back they also get as much time out of school as the child that started the fight or the bully. Wheres the justice in that?
What has happened to a person having the right to defend themselves? Surely we can't expect a child to just let another student beat on them without having some kind of right to defend.