“Bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words, or more subtle actions. The bullied individual typically has trouble defending him or herself and does nothing to ‘cause’ the bullying,” according to the American Psychological Association. Victims may adopt self-protection behaviors, like defending themselves against the bully and avoiding normal activities during break time. For months, a group of big boys have been bullying him by name-calling, pushing, and kicking. Things felt even worse as OP wrote, “I met up with a friend yesterday who I haven’t seen for a while, and I told her about DS and how awful it had all been. And she bloody well already knew. I was so stunned that it didn’t really register what she was saying until I got home. Her DS is in the same class as these big boys and had been telling her all along what was happening to my little boy. But she never said anything.” Now, OP wants to know if she is being unreasonable for thinking that this woman is not a real friend? From Roussette: “She’s no friend. The first thing I would do if my son told me about ones in his class doing this to your son would be to ring you up and say is XXXX ok? I’ve heard that he is being picked on. Is there anything I can do, how can I help you or him?”. From BellePeppa: “I don’t agree with posters on here giving your friend a pass by assuming she thought you knew! I’d be telling my friend immediately when I found out, and I’d be furious and upset for my friend’s child. She’s let you down big time in my opinion.”

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