I am angry, disgusted, dissapointed, ashamed and proud!

So for the past several weeks my older son has been asking me to drop a class he is in because of several reasons, but mainly he does not like the teacher.
I have told him to suck it up, that is life and one is not always going to be around people they like but one has to learn to live with it.
His main issue with the teacher is that she has no problem with the students cheating, copying, etc. My son is not exactly mister goodie two shoes, but it has been pissing him off.
He also started to tell me stories about another boy in this class that kids liked to make fun of and that teacher never did anything about it. We are talking high school here, so I guess kids should learn to fend for themselves.
He came home yesterday with a new story.....
Seems that the class was giving out answers to a homework assignment when this boy was called on. He got the answer wrong. Other kids in the class started making fun of him, calling him out, telling him he was stupid and dumb, etc. The majority of the class got involved by either shouting along or laughing at him.
The best part???? The teacher went right along with it and even admitted to him being stupid for getting it wrong!
At this point my son had had enough. He told everyone to shut up and told the teacher she should be ashamed for going along with it. Everyone, including the teacher said it was only a joke!
A joke he asked? Does it look like ? is laughing? What happened next?
My son was called out for standing up for this boy and told he was a loser for doing so. When the girl next to him told him he was so lame and he could forget about being popular, he asked her why she went along with it.
"Look at him, he is nerdy and gross looking, why wouldn't I make fun of him?" WOW!!
At that point others called out that he was nerdy, etc. From the teacher? Nothing!

Why did my son stand up to this boy? Have I done a stellar job raising my son? No, it is because he has been the past victim of being bullied and nobody coming to his rescue. We have tried to tell him that "tomorrow none of this will matter".

I asked him if he minded if I went to the school about this. His answer? "What is the point, schools never do anything about it." You know what? He is right.

Bullying, in the media a lot, we hear about kids all the time committing suicide because of it. We had a beautiful girl last week here in Georgetown take her life because she was done with the abuse of not being "skinny enough".

Do I blame the kids? somewhat. Do I blame society? yes.
Do I blame the parents? For sure.
There is a high value placed on the fact that one is athletic, gorgeous, skinny, possess swagger, etc. Parents foster this in their kids as the way to be, but forget to tell them along the way that others may not possess this, but are just as special.

I am at odds with myself right now not knowing what to do. Go against my child's wishes and contact the school. Contact the mother of the girl in his class who I have know for years or will that not make a difference? Send a nasty note to the teacher. Or sit back and do nothing at all?

Bullying and teasing...has always been around. It won't go away, but the way we handle it and teach our children can change and should change.