DS is in Y7 so first year of high school. He's gone to a different school to all of his primary class and to be honest has struggled making friends (he does have autism), he's friendly with a few boys but not really clicked with anyone yet.
There's a boy he had started becoming friendly with a few months ago, they've been to cinema and McDonald's out of school. This boy has since started whacking DS with his pencil case, "funny" punching him on the arm and doing stupid things like switching off DS laptop in lessons. I've tried to get DS to stand up for himself, telling a teacher if something is happening during class time but DS is not the best at being assertive. He also doesn't want to upset this boy too much as when he's not being a nuisance he is being his (only) friend. I'm not sure if his boy struggles socially also and possibly is acting out because of this but obviously I want him to stop. DS says this boy doesn't really talk to anyone else although he does do some annoying things to other boys also but mainly his behaviour is directed at DS.
My thoughts are to have a word with his HOY and ask him to gently step in but DS has begged me not to. I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions of how else DS can deal with this? Would sending this boy a text asking saying he wants to be mates but he needs to stop hitting him work? Any other suggestions? I do worry getting the HOY involved might blow things up a bit, the incidents are happening maybe 3 times a week and DS finds them more irritating than actually hurting him although he did hit him quite hard today.