Seriously, yes. In reality, the law usually says “no”, especially if the person in question has a “protected status” such as having an IEP in schools.
We homeschooled for 10 years, but our son went to public high school. There was a boy there with Tourettes, and the local bullies made “friends” with him and started telling him how Andy hated him, wanted to fight him, wanted to hurt him, it went on and on. Finally they cornered Andy in the parking lot with this kid. They formed a big ring around the two and instigated the fight by handing the kid a baseball bat. Andy was locked inside his friend’s car at the time, but since he didn’t want his friend’s car to be ruined, he got out and fought with the kid. (Bad choice, I know, but I’m not sure what a “good choice” would have been at that point.) Anyway, Andy beat the tar out of him, and got himself in big trouble.
The school suspended my kid for 2 days, and the Tourettes kid for a week.
I walked into the principal’s office and demanded to know why this special needs kid didn’t at least have someone attached to him to help him with social situations and make sure he wasn’t taken advantage of. The principal told me his hands were tied, that it was against the law. I was furious, and I felt so bad for the kid, his parents, the principal, and my son.
This is a perfect example of how the was law being served, but justice was totally missing from a situation.