I applaud you for taking action!! I cannot BELIEVE the school is trying to blame you!! Absolutely pathetic.
I'm glad your DD is excited about the changes, even though change can be a little scary sometimes.
As a 12 year old, I was "bullied" by a girl in my grade level who was a year or two older than me. She never hit me, but towered over me, made threats, and generally just scared the heck out of me. It cast a really dark shadow over several years in junior high school, which are so difficult, anyway for some kids. My parents did not really have options to move me, so I just silently suffered. I have absolutely no idea what provoked her actions. I was a nice kid who pretty much got along with everyone, and floated between different socioeconomic groups, cliques, etc. I wonder how my life would have been different had I been given an opportunity to leave that setting.
Hopefully the new school will be a good fit for now. However, I think it's important to listen to your intuition if it's possibly guiding you to homeschool. I believe there is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing to homeschool in order to protect your child from such bullying situations. Having made the decision to HS ourselves, however, we are certainly a little biased towards it now. I do not fit the description of the typical conservative HSer in our community. I am thankful for the opportunity to have lived in a large, progressive city which allowed me to see a new perspective of HSing and how it has really changed over the last few decades. After reading anything I could get my hands on regarding WHY people choose to homeschool, it seemed to all come together for us and it was ultimately a very easy decision.
Not trying to sound pushy in the least.
Just wanted to offer some encouragement to you whatever you decide is best for your child.
Keep us posted.
Allison
