can they treat my son this way

i'm from arkansas and my son is 12 years old. this all started about the second week of school. there is some bullies at school and they want let him play on the basketball court and if he goes ahead and tries to they hit him with the balls. he is overweight and i think that is why they pick on him so much. they call him ugly names. ben is real easy going and want fight back or say anything back to them, he just walks off. i talked to his teacher and he said he didn't realize there was a problem. then i talked to one of the boys and he admitted he was hitting him but he was just having fun. we reported this to the teacher and he made my son not be able to touch the balls. he can't come in contact with any of the kids if they have a ball. someone told the teacher that i had video taped the abuse on the playground but i haven't we don't own a camcorder. anyway the teacher made a announcement in class that no one wa to come into contact with my son because i was video taping. which is not true. now the kids say things to him like '' is your mom video taping again'' or you can't play your mom might be taping us. my son asked the teacher today if he could play ball and he told him no. but the kids that where hitting him are still playing ball. we went to a community function last saturday night and my son had to fight the whole time because the boys (total of 7) where trying to trip and hit him outside the building. what can i do to stop this. my son wants to switch to a different school but we live 30 miles from a school that he could attend. i just don't know what i can do. i'm afraid this could lead to a more tragic situation.

You need to have a sit-down chat with the principal.

Tell him calmly what is going on. Tell him how his staff has reacted to the problem your son is experiencing.

Ask him to devise and implement a plan to fix this problem.

By having this meeting, you are putting him on notice that there is a problem.

If he is aware of it and still doesn't try to solve it, then you have a potential lawsuit brewing.

The problem for him legally isn't so much that your son is being picked on -- it's that you have brought it to the staff's attention, and they haven't tried to fix it. In fact, it appears that they have tried to make it worse.

This creates a situation in which your son's education is being interfered with and also creates a potential danger to him.

Best of luck with this tough situation.