My son has been bullied by the same kid for 4 years. It has gotten to the point where he is becoming a different kid...a boy who is normally happy as can be laughing and joking around constantly is becoming withdrawn and depressed. He cries about going to school because of this child. We approached the school, yet again, about this child and even though it's been 4 years the principals solution is to ask them if they want to be around each other and when they obviously say no he says okay tell me if the other talks to you and if you want to be friends again let me know. This is a child who has verbally assaulted my child, physically assaulted him.and socially abused him through peer coercion. My son has actually gotten in more trouble for pulling the kid off of another kid he was beating up!! My older son asked the boy to leave his brother alone because he was becoming sad at home and the kid reported my son as attacking him and swearing at him. (My son just recently received his latest in multiple awards from the school for respect and even his teacher said there's no way. He won't even let me say shut up at home!) So the kid continues to lie non stop. Including when the principal said he spoke to him and he said it was all my sons fault. The principal told me he spoke to the boys on one particular day and my son confirmed the principal lied to me as he never spoke to them. After all of this I have spoken to tons of parents who have dealt with bullying (especially at this school - Wilfrid Jury ) and been told they can't do anything because the bullies are from broken homes, have difficult.family lives...or my favorite one - they are the star basketball player! On top of all of this my husband asked the child to leave my kids alone as it was making my son very upset - the gym teacher decided it was appropriate to jump like he was jumping on a grenade and begin screaming inches from my husband's face demanding help over the walkie talkie like my husband was abducting a kid or something. The teacher chose to lie saying my husband was in the kids face screaming at him and despite my three kids all confirming he didn't do that, the principal and vice principal believed the teacher and banned my husband from the property for one year. This is what you get when you try to stand up for your kids because the schools do nothing! Even so, if my husband had actually yelled at the child what example was the teacher setting by physically and verbally assaulting my husband in response? Tvdsb runs on a progressive discipline model...which apparently means saying don't do that to the bully and hoping for the best. I am calling for action from the board to change the ways in which they confront bullying. More proactive discipline is necessary to make things start changing. No more quick fixes to pacify and quiet parents! Teach bullies that it will not be tolerated!! Help me show TVDSB that we want change, that we want more protection for out children when they are in their care, that we want bullies to get the message it will not be tolerated!!