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Moving away from the thread on Seduction and the Ages...my comments on this subject did not belong there.
This bullying episode speaks to the level of incompetence found in those who are hired to protect and nurture children.
http://www.kens5.com/news/national/Dad-goes-into-tirade-after-bus-bullies-target-disabled-daughter-103168809.html
I don't think any parent would react differently considering the school had not responded to these events. I am personally familiar with the subject and thus my strong reaction to same.
I pulled my 12 year old nephew out of public school because of the bullying he received on the school bus. You must know at the outset that he was one of four white kids on the bus in a sea of black faces. To me the bullying was radcially motivated and yet all I saw were his tears and the desire to stay out of school.
To harass a white kid for his race, a gay kid for his sexual identity or a handicapped child because they cannot fight back is criminal. But the real crime is that if such activity prevents a child from receiving an education then I see red and want someone to get locked up for the crime.
I started off much like the father whose daughter was bullied, I went to the school authorities and informed them of the situation. I was told that they would look into it, and nothing happened. I pulled my nephew off the bus and drove him to school for a week hoping to allow tensions to cool down. But the following week he was back on the bus and returned home with blood on his shirt from the damage to his nose.
My next visit to the school was less than pleasing to the vice-principal who I accosted in front of his office staff just so there would be witnesses. I made it quite clear that I was going to obtain the names of the bullies and have them arrested for assault, and since he was aware of the crimes I was naming him as an accomplice. I said he could expect the police to arrive the following day. He threated to have me arrested for tresspassing, I told him to go right ahead, I was taking my nephew out of the school.
The school resource officer (a uniformed policeman) refused to arrest me and instead escorted me out to the parking lot so I could leave. He told me that many parents at the school were unhappy with this vice-principal and that the school had a major discipline problem. I told him I would be back to get my nephew's school records.
I placed the boy in a private charter school, an inner city school with a 90% black student body. I did it for two reasons. One, I was on the school advisory board there, a place I had volunteered for three years. Second, I did not want the boy to feel prejudiced against black people.
Today the boy is a yong man of twenty and his three closest friends are black because they all graduated from that school together. It isn't the race it's the attitude. That charter school stood up for education and no nonsense. A friend of my nephew is graduating from the University of Virgina next year, she has a 4.3 grade point average, that equates to an A plus plus. She is black and proves that race has nothing to do with intelligence. Any student can excell if they have the proper guidance.
As for that vice-princpal, he made the error of running for the school board in the county and the parents of all those he had ignored at the middle school blew his chance right out the window. I was fortunate enough to sit by and watch it happen, it was quite an education.
I'm sorry for the length of my discourse. There are laws on the books for assault and harassment, they are little enforced in the school system. My nephew is gay. I did not allow that to become part of the argument when he was younger, even though I was aware of his early feelings. He didn't need to see it as part of the problem. He finally came out at age 18 and made me proud. Some lessons in life do end well.
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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Bullying, the law and enforcement... 
