Son taking a detention

My son has never had a detention and just got 2 weeks of detention. He has been getting bullied a lot by this kid at his school. The put his backpack in the trash can and has called him many gay slurs. My son has tried to stay away from this kid and get through the school year. We've reported it to the principal many times and all they do is make the kid apologize. Then something else happens. They got into a physical altercation because the kid pushed him down and he got fed up and pushed the kid back. Nobody got hurt. They were just shoving each other. The principal wanted to try something new to make them get along and have them have lunch together alone everyday until the end of the year so they can get to know each other and possibly become friends. My son said he's not doing it and they gave him an option to either do it or have lunch detention for two weeks. He said he would take the lunch detention. There is only about 3ish weeks of school left and I don't want him spending a majority of it in lunch detention. I think there's a possibility maybe the principals plan could work. I honestly just don't want him in lunch detention but do you think it would be such a bad idea to give it a try?