My son saw the article and told me about it. He only went to kindergarten at our small town public school, but he went long enough to see that bullying was a problem there. It wasn't just physical bullying that I was worried about. With my son's chronic pain and fatigue issues that now include heart issues that can be made worse with stress, I know we made the right decision to homeschool.
I can't imagine what it would have been like for him to wear the scoliosis brace for years and deal with frequent migraines and sleep issues and then all the worry that came with finally getting a correct diagnosis and needing a very painful surgery and then having to go back to a place of bullying. I think it would have been very easy to become depressed in that environment. I just don't think he would have been able to learn if he had to worry about the bullies in addition to all the medical issues.
I will be meeting with my old boss who works for a state organization for kids with disabilities. I think she will try to tell me that public school can work, that there is an IEP for everything. Can you get no bullying allowed in an IEP? I don't think so, the school will not admit that there is a problem. Can you be allowed to sleep in when you could only get three hours of sleep the night before because of pain issues which make it even harder to deal with everything including verbal bullying?
