Does anyone else feel all these anti-bullying policies are no more than words on paper?

As someone on the spectrum who has experienced bullying in school first hand i have to say I agree with you.  There is some schools out there you will just get no where with, and it's absolutely no fault of your own or your child.  My mum sent letters, had meetings, talked to parents, but it didn't make any difference.  The head teacher was just, like, what am I supposed to do, it's just kids being kids.  In my case the teachers were as bad to me as the children were.  I don't know how different school would've been if I had been diagnosed with autistic problems earlier in my life (I wasn't diagnosed until I was well out of school), everyone just seemed to htink I was a problem child.  My "guidance" teacher was not interested in guiding anyone.  She was in her 40s, a gym teacher (who wore short shorts all the time), and gave our class one sex education class where she said 'I'm 40 years old and still a virgin, you don't need to have sex to get anywhere in life', and that was it. She also discouraged me from going to university, saying there was no point in me going as there was no hope for me.

Sadly the school didn't take me seriously until I was sexually assaulted in my last year there.  I was pinned in a room by a guy in my class and he got his privates out at me, but I managed to get away and tell a teacher I had not talked to before.  I don't think my guidance teacher would've done very much.  Somehow the news of this happening got out and I'm now known as the person who got him expelled, it's even in the yearbook, and I now have to live with that.  It's a pity it got to that stage of bullying though.

But, if it wasn't for my mother I think I'd be a different person.  She kept me right in how to deal with people like this.  It was difficult to experience (being tripped up in hallways, cornered in bathrooms by girls, etc) but my grandmother and mother (my dad left when I was 2) always reminded me that I was better than them, that they only bullied me because they were jealous or bored, and that it wasn't my fault.  Even though I haven't been in school for 10 years now I feel that even if the school had done anything it probably would'nt have mattered as much as the support and strength my mother and grandmother gave me, so what you are doing for your child is great and you should'nt give up.  The system maybe different than it was during my time, so you might get somewhere some day.  It's not his fault he sees the world in a different way, and I've grown to realise it's not a bad thing at all.  If anything it's some of my greatest strengths.  Attention to detail, no interest in gossiping, ability to work well on my own.  And for all those people who picked on me in school, I found out a lot of them were on drugs and alcohol while in school and have now not amounted to much, or are actually apologising to me when they meet me for how they were to me in school.  It doesn't happen this way to everyone, I know that, but if it gives at least one person hope then that's good enough for me.

As someone on the spectrum who has experienced bullying in school first hand i have to say I agree with you.  There is some schools out there you will just get no where with, and it's absolutely no fault of your own or your child.  My mum sent letters, had meetings, talked to parents, but it didn't make any difference.  The head teacher was just, like, what am I supposed to do, it's just kids being kids.  In my case the teachers were as bad to me as the children were.  I don't know how different school would've been if I had been diagnosed with autistic problems earlier in my life (I wasn't diagnosed until I was well out of school), everyone just seemed to htink I was a problem child.  My "guidance" teacher was not interested in guiding anyone.  She was in her 40s, a gym teacher (who wore short shorts all the time), and gave our class one sex education class where she said 'I'm 40 years old and still a virgin, you don't need to have sex to get anywhere in life', and that was it. She also discouraged me from going to university, saying there was no point in me going as there was no hope for me.

Sadly the school didn't take me seriously until I was sexually assaulted in my last year there.  I was pinned in a room by a guy in my class and he got his privates out at me, but I managed to get away and tell a teacher I had not talked to before.  I don't think my guidance teacher would've done very much.  Somehow the news of this happening got out and I'm now known as the person who got him expelled, it's even in the yearbook, and I now have to live with that.  It's a pity it got to that stage of bullying though.

But, if it wasn't for my mother I think I'd be a different person.  She kept me right in how to deal with people like this.  It was difficult to experience (being tripped up in hallways, cornered in bathrooms by girls, etc) but my grandmother and mother (my dad left when I was 2) always reminded me that I was better than them, that they only bullied me because they were jealous or bored, and that it wasn't my fault.  Even though I haven't been in school for 10 years now I feel that even if the school had done anything it probably would'nt have mattered as much as the support and strength my mother and grandmother gave me, so what you are doing for your child is great and you should'nt give up.  The system maybe different than it was during my time, so you might get somewhere some day.  It's not his fault he sees the world in a different way, and I've grown to realise it's not a bad thing at all.  If anything it's some of my greatest strengths.  Attention to detail, no interest in gossiping, ability to work well on my own.  And for all those people who picked on me in school, I found out a lot of them were on drugs and alcohol while in school and have now not amounted to much, or are actually apologising to me when they meet me for how they were to me in school.  It doesn't happen this way to everyone, I know that, but if it gives at least one person hope then that's good enough for me.