Nope, you can't "blame the victim." I would take seriously that the school says they're on top of the bullying part of the situation (and still keep watching closely how it plays out in the future).
At the same time, you definitely can recognize and change what your own child is doing to set himself up to be bullied. I've seen this situation before in my own DS's class, and it's pretty obvious that the kid who acts the smarty pants role needs guidance in choosing a different role, for his own sake.
It's a matter of his learning to control through his actions how other people see him. He can learn to recognize that there are ways of talking and acting that annoy others, and other ways we can choose to help others feel good. It's not about being smart or not smart, it's about hurting others' feelings or not. This skill of adapting his behavior to the context will serve him well forever.
That's not the same as accepting blame-- bullying is never OK-- it's more about helping him have control over his own social role.
HTH,
DeeDee
