My daughter recently started high school. I have a friend/neighbour who's son is a year older who from the start of term would wait for my daughter to walk to the bus together. He's a pretty socially awkward kid, his mum has said she thinks he probably has ASD but there is no diagnosis as far as I know. He was bullied quite badly at primary and my daughter says he does still seem get a hard time from some of the boys at secondary and doesn't really have friends that she's seen. Daughter came to me yesterday and said she doesn't want to walk with him anymore, she says he pushes her around and tries to trip her up and is loud and rude to her other friends. When she's asked him to stop the pushing he said 'I always do this with my friends', he then did it again and she pushed him back causing his earphones to fall off and he yelled at her in front of a crowd of people and stormed away. When other friends from her own year try to talk to them on the bus he tells them to 'piss off', daughter asked him to stop because he was embarrassing her and he told her doesn't care if she's embarrassed. He'll tease and annoy her then say 'ohhh is the little first year upset, can you not take it' etc. She's completely fed up with him, doesn't like him and doesn't want to be tarred by association with his behaviour but feels guilty/awkward about avoiding him because he is a target for bullying from other boys and I'm friends with his mum. I've reassured her she absolutely does not need to put up with this and it's not her job to sacrifice her own comfort for the sake of his difficulties, he's treating her badly therefore he's not a friend and that's that, the physical aspect especially has really angered me. It's also not her problem if it makes things awkward between the two adults, I can deal with that. I helped her write and send a message telling him she'd be getting the bus without him in future and not to call for her. My friend naturally worries about her son being isolated or picked on, there were two girls he would get the bus with last year who he said 'ditched him' but it strikes me he was likely acting out on them like he has done with my daughter now. I think friend had hoped having my daughter there would give him at least one friend. Would you be honest with friend about how his own behaviour is contributing to how he's perceived at school? Or just reassure daughter she's not obligated to spend time with him and leave it at that?