It took Thomas Dzomba, the father of an autistic daughter, to put the discussion on school bullying at Hellgate Middle School perfectly on point Monday night.

"We are dealing with a child with autism," Dzomba said, referring to Pat Fuglei, the autistic Hellgate eighth grader who was bullied out of school last month. "We have to make a better effort to deal with this."

By this, he didn't simply mean kids with autism being bullied. He meant all kids, but particularly kids with special needs.

"We have to do better," Dzomba said.

Dzomba was one of about 10 parents who voiced concerns at a special board meeting of the Hellgate Elementary School District board.

Board member Diane Beck asked for the special meeting after an Oct. 25 story in the Missoulian detailed the taunts and harassment Pat Fuglei endured during his middle school years.

In that story, Pat's parents, Bruce and Bridget, said their son had been repeatedly hazed during the first five weeks of the current school year. Finally, the Fugleis took Pat out of school and enrolled him in a school in Arizona that specializes in education for autistic children.

Although Pat is considered a high-functioning autistic child, he is also gullible and easily tricked. Some of his classmates took advantage of that and repeatedly told Pat to say sexually coarse things to girls in his class. Another student bullied Pat into exposing himself.

Students also taunted Pat, calling him a "retard."

Despite that treatment, school superintendent Doug Reisig said he had no idea about the mistreatment until Pat was taken out of school.

"I've never spoken with the Fuglei family," Reisig said.

One by one, the district's three principals said they'd never heard anything about Pat being bullied. And yet Bruce Fuglei said problems were repeatedly brought to the attention of Pat's special education teacher.

In explaining the district's response to the Fugleis and the Missoulian story, Reisig noted that the Fugleis had never filed a formal complaint.

That explanation didn't sit too well with Bruce Fuglei, nor did many of the 50 or so parents present Monday night appear to be swayed.

The meeting got a bit heated when Bruce Fuglei spoke and turned the tables on Reisig's remark that he hadn't spoken to the family.

"Is it my responsibility to track you down?" Fuglei asked Reisig. "You should have called me. We got no calls after the incident, not any. No calls from you, no calls from teachers."

A steady stream of parents took to the microphone after Fuglei, and their concerns varied from the acute situation with Pat to the broader issue of bullying across the school.

"I'm very disappointed in the way you've handled this," said Mary Jo Fanning.

Parents were particularly unhappy that the issues - both Pat leaving school and the bullying problem - haven't been talked over with students yet.

"This has been the elephant in the room," said parent Denise Zimmer. "All the kids are talking about it, wondering why no one will say anything."

Reisig said a school counselor will start talking with students this week about bullying.

That, said Big Sky High School teacher and Hellgate parent Kim Lucostic said, won't be enough.

"It's not going to solve the problem," said Lucostic. "The message does not reach them the first time. You've got to do more."

Lucostic recommended a more extensive anti-bullying program rather than reliance on a handbook and a talk from a counselor.

"Why couldn't this be a more teachable moment, right after this happened?" said Zimmer. "That's when you needed to be talking about this."

By meeting's end, several board members said the problem was firmly entrenched on their radar screens.

"This is something that we are going to spend a lot more time on in the future," said board member Paula Sheridan. "We've got to do a better job for these kids."

Reporter Michael Moore can be reached

at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.