The mother of a nine-year-old is suing her local school board for what she says is the board's failure to protect her son from bullies. The Kitchener, Ont., mom says the Waterloo Region Catholic School Board hasn't done enough to stop the bullies who repeatedly harassed her son, giving him fat lips, bruises, and stab wounds from a pencil.

According to an article in The Record, Kitchener's daily newspaper, the attacks started in September, 2008. The mother was quoted as claiming bullying to be a widespread problem in her son's school, and accused the principal, school trustees and superintendents of not taking her concerns seriously. She says she has written dozens of letters, and even tried working it out with the parents of the kids who were bullying her son. But now her son wants to be home schooled.

The boy and his mother are not being named to protect his identity.

In what the article described as a possible first of its kind in Ontario, the mother is suing the school board and Region of Waterloo both for $25,000 in damages, the maximum allowed in small claims court.

A spokesperson for the school board said this is the first time the region has been taken to court over its anti-bullying program, and an investigation will look into the case to see if the rules were followed when it comes to complaints about bullying.

The school board and region can't respond directly to the allegations made by the mother because it is before the courts, according to the article. The board has filed a statement of defence.

This is going to be an interesting case to follow. Earlier this month, Ontario became the first province in Canada to require all school staff to report any serious incidents of bullying to the principal. As part of the 'Keeping Our Kids Safe at School Act,' school principals are now also required to contact the parents of the victims of bullies, another first in Canada.

But what good is this legislation if nothing happens as a result? The government claims on its website that this new legislation will "make schools safer" and help students "achieve their full potential."

But for at least one nine-year-old in the province, school doesn't sound like such a safe place right now. Nor a place he can achieve his full potential. So in what seems like a very un-Canadian move, his mom has decided to sue. Let's see what happens next.

(You may also be interested in the story of two Winnipeg moms with bullied children, and another story about an Ottawa situation. )

A four-year-old in Dallas has been suspended because he’s refusing to cut his shoulder-length hair. Although the little boy’s long hair is a violation of the school’s dress code- a code which actually dictates the length of a student’s hair- his parents are supporting his decision.

In a televised interview, the school principal claimed the little boy’s long hair to be a distraction to the other students. The boy’s parents claim that school officials are more concerned about their son’s hair than his education. The boy now spends his days in the library, serving an in-school suspension.

This is the kind of news report that makes me wonder which parts of the story we just aren’t hearing about- those missing pieces and facts that would maybe help us ‘get it,’ instead of just shaking our heads in disbelief.

Of course it could also be a simple case of a school actually not allowing a kid to be in the classroom just because his bangs hang in his eyes a bit and his hair touches the top of his shoulders. But I like to think that there’s more to it than that. After all, this is a public school we’re talking about, right?

And it would be just plain stupid to suspend a kid because of the length of his hair, right?

The school’s dress code states that a boy’s hair must be kept out of the eyes and can’t extend below the bottom of earlobes or over the collar of a dress shirt. I’m not sure what, if any, rules they have about the length of female students’ hair.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a serious problem with any of the rules or polices of any of the schools my own five children have attended over the years. I do remember one time starting a discussion at a parent council meeting about all the school dances the school kept throwing for the grade 7s during school hours.

And to be honest, I’ve also never liked ‘On the Wall’ as a form of discipline. That’s where kids are made to face a wall outside of the school during recess time. I can understand and appreciate that sometimes the school needs a quick way to divide and conquer when things start getting out of hand in a crowded school yard. And ‘On the Wall’ can be great, I guess, for a cooling-down period. But I think it’s inappropriate to use it as a way to deal with every infraction of any kind. Like for students who forget to do or hand in their homework.

For the most part, however, I’ve never had a serious concern about any official school policy.

Until now.

Suspending a student- especially a four-year-old- simply because of his or her hair length is just stupid.

It’s every parent’s dream.

Okay, maybe it’s just mine. But when my 11-year-old son Michael came home with a note from his grade six teacher informing parents that she “doesn’t believe in homework,” I think I was even happier than my son.

A teacher who doesn’t believe in homework?

Instead, as she explained in the letter, she believes children need time after school to spend with their families and for extracurricular activities.

No more sudden announcements on a Sunday night from my son that he needs to make a population density map of Canada. Or draw a six-sided brochure about Mars for science class. And it’s, uh, due tomorrow.

I admit, until that letter came home, I had never even seriously entertained the idea that having no homework could be in my child’s best interest. Great for me and their father, of course. But our kid?

Our son in grade eight brings home tons of homework almost every night. I find it interesting how one teacher can say that she “doesn’t believe in homework,” while the teacher in the very next classroom insists that homework is a crucial part of school, helping kids to develop a strong work ethic and self-discipline.

Who’s right? Who’s wrong?

Until recently, I assumed that homework wasn’t debatable. It was just a part of school. At worst, a necessary evil to help prepare kids for high school and university.

But according to a study by two education experts from the University of Toronto, homework doesn’t necessarily help our kids at all. Instead, it can create stress and even lead to “marital problems.”

Prince of Wales public school in Barrie, Ont., has actually banned homework and according to the school’s principal, the students’ marks have been steadily improving ever since. In an interview with CTV’s Canada AM, school principal, Jan Olson, said the ban came after the school did research into the relationship between homework and student achievement.

"We didn't find a whole lot of achievement correlation between those so we decided, 'why do we need to do it then?'" Olson said, adding that the ban has also lead to an improvement in the students' behaviour. However, the students at Prince of Wales Public School still study for tests.

Come to think of it, despite my son’s grade six teacher claiming to not believe in homework, she still reminds the class the night before a test that they might want to review their notes. She also encourages nightly reading and offers a selection of books in her classroom which students can borrow from.

Homework is such a long-standing school tradition, I never really questioned its effectiveness or its impact on our kids. Of course, the fact alone that a school in Barrie banned homework doesn’t absolutely mean that it’s out-dated, ineffective, and possibly harmful to our kids.

But it makes me wonder what else I might be taking for granted about my children’s public school education, and be absolutely wrong about.