With all the attention this is getting over the lack of punishment for the bully and such, I wonder if my local school district takes on problems like this in some new and revolutionary way. Some years ago when I was in middle school, a bully decided I would be an excellent target and beat the living snot out of me... went at me with a rubber hose and everything resulting in over half my face being swollen and bruised (And arms as all I tried to do was block shots). The recommended policy of the administration was that because the most they could really do was give an out-of-school suspension on their own (the parents didn't ever care what their son did), that my parents should press charges, and if we did that, the district could begin the process of having him removed from the district as a whole. We pressed charges and as a result the kid was permenantly banned from the school district.

Schools have limited control over kids when the parents don't care, in extreme cases you just have to involve the authorities. No one questions the authority of the police and courts in matters like this.