This was absolutely the last straw. The last couple of times Billy got beaten up at his junior high school, there was really not much I could do. Children can be awfully cruel, and aside from advising him to stay out of the troublemakers’ way (and failing that, try to reason with his harassers), I had to accept that this is part of a boy’s growing up experience. The last time, I suggested that we report the incident to the school authorities, but Billy objected, not wanting to come across