Yeah I'm always surprised at how little flack my kid (who's a spectrum kid) gets at school, I've seen a few instances of it, but not nearly what I'd expect for how different he acts sometimes. Lots of effort on education and empathy by the school. His teacher is so amazing this year, we even asked if she wanted to teach the next highest grade next year
There's quite a few kids like that too, so maybe that means the general policy of integration actually is a good idea.
But can depend on the individual group of kids too, one of my son's friends moved to the Catholic school nearby because of bullying and general non-acceptance by her peers in my son's school.
As to the bench, I dunno.. My initial reaction is to agree that it's probably great up till about grade 5 where how one looks to others really starts to kick into gear.