Reply #18: My experiences sound very similar to yours, and music happened

[RadicalMom]

to be my salvation. I ended up performing regularly at anything I could (with my friend) and before long, had almost a fan club. I had been relentlessly persecuted until I went to middle school and started performing. My daughter tells me that her middle school has the same no tolerance of bullying, and they bring the offenders and their parents in about these things. It usually stops it. The other thing at her school is that if she or her friends see the sixth graders ganging up on another one, they, the eigth graders, immediately give the bullies hell, no matter the sex. They also report it to the closest adult authority right away. This usually makes a huge difference. They are encouraged to do this. They usually try to keep an eye out for the victims for a long time after.

I really don't like the home schooling approach, due to the fact that my nephew is being homeschooled for that reason. They have moved out of their state(a red one as it happens), and unfortunately weren't even willing to try the new school (blue state). They don't want to subject him to even the possibility of having to cope with this or any other school problem. The boy is a bright normal child, who has absolutely no friends, no physical outlets, and is becoming a person who does not know how to relate to kids even close to hia age, now 14. It's tragic, and they don't realize it. My daughter wants to rescue him.