District on Trial Over Bullying of Boy With Tourette's

A federal trial is under way in a lawsuit that accuses Harrisburg school officials of failing to protect a middle school boy with Tourette's syndrome from anti-gay harassment and attacks.
The boy's mother testified Tuesday that he was shoved, slapped and taunted by students who perceived his neurological disorder as homosexuality, the Eugene Register-Guard reports.

She pulled him out of the seventh grade in 2010 after he was harassed in a locker room.

His condition makes him socially awkward, because he doesn't have the same "coping mechanisms or off-the-cuff responses a normal kid has," his mother said.