It’s a tough situation. Obviously, you were anguished, just as any decent parent would be, that Nigel was being bullied.

I’m sure you understand that the school administration can’t just take Nigel’s word for it (let alone yours – you weren’t even there) that the bullies were hurting him. They could perhaps have held some sort of confrontation with Nigel’s word against theirs, if they really had to. It would have been a “he said, they said” situation and the administrators would have had a tough time of it whichever way they decided because they would in effect be calling at least one student a liar based on nothing but the word of one or more other students.

Once in a while it’s unavoidable – and it’s certainly preferably to just shutting out one side and just jumping to a conclusion favoring the other side. (And that happens sometimes, including in schools. In my experience, officials commit such injustices more often to protect bullies than to punish them.) If there’s a way to get corroboration, I can definitely understand the school’s wanting to take that course.

I would say “all’s well that ends well”. The bullies were caught and made to apologize, and Nigel got a brief reprieve. I’m very sorry the bullying quickly resumed; I suspect the outcome was no worse than if the school had just gone ahead and punished the bullies without any witnesses to their misbehavior.

I’m glad things are better for Nigel now, and I know you’re the most important reason why. I hope he appreciates it.

Jeff Deutsch