This kind of thing is common in our small sports-obsessed town. Verbal bullying has been used for generations to motivate kids to try harder. Teachers don't see anything wrong with it. When I volunteered at the school during my son's kindergarten year, I often heard a third grade teacher verbally abuse her students. She didn't try to hide it because it is accepted here. I believe this is one of the reasons the first grade teacher told me I absolutely had to homeschool my son. He had two strikes against him. He was very smart and physically weaker than other kids.
My son has mild hypotonia and was diagnosed with developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia at 11, then scoliosis, then finally he was more accurately diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder and a heart condition. He was told recently by the cardiologist that he must never push himself physically, lift weights, and a number of other things for the rest of his life. He had been lifting heavier and heavier weights prior to this news because he didn't want to be seen as physically weak for obvious reasons. When I found a post by a young man who had been given similar news on a message board and who said he would rather die than give up doing sports and physical activities he loved and that he intended to keep doing those things, I wondered if he grew up in a town like mine, where people are ignorant and proud of it. It will take a lot to change their minds. They were raised this way and believe they are perfect.
I really don't know how to make people understand that this is very, very wrong. I want so badly to make them understand.
Homeschooling was our only choice but it has left us feeling so very isolated because people don't understand and don't care to understand.
