Our son Pat, an eighth-grader, is now attending a school for high functioning autistic children in Scottsdale, Ariz., starting Monday. He left Hellgate Middle School due to bullying by fellow eighth-graders.

Below is a letter my wife wrote in the hope that the Hellgate administration would read it to the entire eighth-grade class. Although, to our knowledge, the Hellgate administration has not yet done anything, they refused to read this letter, saying parents might not like it, and, from their attorney, "classrooms cannot become a forum for the pronouncements of parents." However, we think it important that parents, especially Hellgate parents, become aware of the results of the actions of some of their children.

Dear Hellgate eighth-graders:

It is with our hearts broken into a million pieces that we are writing this letter to inform you that our son, Patrick, will not be returning to Hellgate Elementary School.

Patrick has attended Hellgate since preschool and we never expected him to leave before graduating from eighth grade. But, we never expected that many of you would turn against him either.

For those of you who have been kind to Patrick during his time here, we applaud and thank you. May you be rewarded with happiness and good fortune. The world certainly needs more people like you.

For those of you who have been cruel to Patrick - and you know who you are - those who mimicked, mocked or made fun of him, who told him to "go away," who intentionally excluded him from games, who taught him profane language, who encouraged him to engage in inappropriate behavior, or who called him names like "retard": How do you live with yourselves? How do you look in the mirror or sleep at night?

You should be ashamed. It's because of you that we're pulling Patrick out of the school that he has loved coming to for over nine years. And, he loves all of you. All he wanted was to be included - to be one of you. God forbid that any of you should someday wind up with a child of your own who has special needs. We encourage you to find a dictionary and look up the word "karma." It basically means that a person is either rewarded or punished in this life according to his/her previous deeds. In other words, "what goes around, comes around." If you don't understand this, you should understand the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," or simply, "Treat others the way you would like to be treated." Learn it and live it!

And, to those of you who stood by and did nothing to defend Patrick when you saw others mistreating him, afraid of what your so-called friends would think of you, we're very disappointed in you, too. The next time you see something like that, show some character and speak up. Put an end to it. You will be respected for it. Sometimes silence is not golden. It's a sign of weakness. We had hoped some leaders would emerge on Pat's behalf, kids who would actively defend Pat in the hallways and on the playgrounds. But as far as we can tell, no such student emerged.

Again, we would like to thank all of you who were nice to Patrick and helped him when he needed it. If any of you would like to say goodbye to Pat you can reach him by telephone. We are listed in the phone book. We know that Patrick will miss all of you. He has a great big heart and forgives easily, but he doesn't forget. And, neither will we.

Good luck with the rest of eighth grade and high school.

Patrick's parents, Bridget and Bruce Fuglei, write from Missoula.