When does 'being mean' become bullying

[afrikat]

My 9 year old DS is in year 4. He has ASD and chronic tics.

Up until this year he has been perfectly happy at school. His friends accept his differences and there have been very few instances of kids being mean to him.

A new boy joining his class last term, I will call him D. D seems to have an issue with my DS and he's coming home every day with something new that's happened - D called him weird, D called him a douchebag, D is asking other kids to raise their hands if they hate my DS. My son has gone from being perfectly settled at school to not wanting to go in.

I've had an initial talk with school and they are aware of the issues and my son isn't the only one being targetted. The only thing that seems to have been done so far is D is 'talked to' after each incident.

At what point would you expect the bullying policy to kick in? What would you be expecting the school to do for continued instances like this?

Hi, im so sorry to hear your son is going through this. Im afraid I have no advise to offer but am following this thread as i to am looking for similar answers. My DS has had a child in their class attack him phyiscally every year since year 2. Same child doing the punching. This child calls him names on a daily basis and mocks my DS all the time. They both play with the same friends so its hard for my DS to stay away.

Now. The issue is it’s repeated incidents not one offs. The school bullying policy should define what they consider to be bullying.

Now. Be very persistent. The squeaky wheel gets the oil so you need to be more of a PItA to deal with than it is for the school to deal with this delightful sounding child.

That is bullying. Email the head, state it is bullying, give dated examples, ask for a meeting.

Keep a diary going forwards.

Mean becomes bullying when it is a repeated pattern. So it is already bullying and should have triggered the policy by now.