Your kid is beating up my kid...but mine started it...

Tuesdays are usually spent at Storytime. We haven't been going for a few months due to other activities. We decided we had some time so we went this morning. I sat down with Madi on the rug and another mom and her son sat down next to us. Madi has learned to pinch. This kid got in her personal space, so she pinched him. I saw her do it. I grabed her hand away, told her "no" and apologized to the boy. He looked right at me, and decided that it was ok for him to hit Madi. Ok, I guess turn about is fair play. His mom said something to him (which I didn't understand because it was in a language I couldn't make sense of...not even the inflection of her voice gave me any indication that she was telling him that his actions were not acceptable). It didn't stop there - he proceded to scratch her and try to push her down. So the rest of storytime was spent playing referee between the two. The agressive boy decided that since Madi pinched him, he was going to try out pinching on others. He pinched an older boy sitting in front of us and then proceeded to kick him in the back. The boy was trying so hard to ignore him and not cry, but the little stinker (whose mother was completely not paying attention!) kept going. I didn't know what to do, so I put my hand on the older boy and tried to ask him if he was ok. He tried to move away when he felt my hand because he thought I was the person who was kicking him. The leader of storytime asked what was going on and that's when the mom decided that she should pay attention. At the end of storytime, the mom of the agressive boy was telling him what a great job he did paying attention. I guess if you are trying to raise a bully...