>Anyway, it was all handled Friday afternoon and my boy seems to feel that he and they all got a fair chance to express their side of he story. Hopefully that will be the end of it. Thanks to all of you - we took all of your suggestions into consideration. Many thanks.

In best stories, the bullies' psychological problems are resolved at such a group session, and everyone become best friends, sing kumbaya and... somehow, I think you're better off where you are. It seems like they do have a way in the UK and that they take it seriously and they get results.

My girls didn't have (or didn't report) such problems. Maybe sidestepping the fights is something they picked up at home (or back home), who knows, or maybe they just had their way of being popular without actually causing anyone's envy, I don't know how it worked, but it did, and I'm glad. From the stories I heard, however, I got the impression that the bullies are a sort of sacred cows here, an institution. Nobody's really touching them as long as nobody gets seriously hurt, and the definition of "seriously" may vary by location and the lawyer's rates.