[sirdarksol]

First of all, I'm going to presume that "scalped" doesn't mean the removal of the scalp in this case (that's what it means in the US). I would guess that such a horrific act would be focused on in an article regarding that.

The first story is an example of over-reaction to a well-meaning law. I saw the same thing happen with a health information privacy act. Doctors' offices would refuse to give child patients' parents their medical info shortly after the act passed because they had been told that any breach of the act would be severely punished. Thus, many believed that over-reaction was better than under-reaction.
That there was a bus with two autistic children and no non-driver aides really concerns me. In my area, the "short bus" ferries the special-needs kids and has at least one adult in addition to the driver. This adult's job is to monitor and protect the children. If a kid has a seizure, or if there's an attack, or if anything else happens, the driver can keep his/her eyes on the road long enough to pull over.

I agree that there are cases where the schools are failing to provide a safe place for their students, but there's also the level of bullying to be considered. That second story blows me away. If a child is that violent, there are warning signs at home and the parents either aren't paying attention or are blowing it off as childishness. Too many of my old school bullies (I was/am a nerd) had parents who just didn't care. We're talking about kids who would do things that would get the police called and mom/dad just wouldn't do anything about it.