Overcoming her negative experience would make your daughter feel more confident and stronger than running away. However, in order to overcome it, she'll need some help. I would recommend that you take her to a child psychologist in order to have the bullying trauma treated and healed, as well as to develop a tool set that will help prevent and/or address any future bullying. If she is prepared, your daughter can face camp optimistically instead of fearfully. I do not recommend that you simply force her to go without doing this preparatory step. She might just get re-traumatized which could have long lasting, devastating consequences. Staying home is a form of avoidance. Avoidance can increase fear and it prevents healing, so I don't suggest you let her just avoid the situation. Switching bunks or switching to another camp has some elements of facing the fear and avoidance - it is better than staying home, but not as good as getting the help she needs to heal and move safely forward.    Sarah Chana

Keep in mind that there are bullies at every camp. They always find the "victim" - the child who is a sitting duck. If you don't fix your daughter's victim position, she'll be a potential victim wherever she goes.

I gave my son karate lessons after he had been picked on excessively. This built his self-image and now no one bothers him. You should consider helping your daughter become stronger in some way so that she will be more bully-proof.

I agree that avoiding camp isn't good for her. But maybe you should be talking to the staff and asking for their help also. They can be on the lookout for any problems and help her cope.

She's got a lot of camping years ahead of her. If she stops now she may never go back and she'll just have bad memories. I think you should help her turn this experience around to something successful. That will be better for her for the rest of her life.