Public schools????

I have a teen who has Aspergers. Not sure if he is high functioning or not, but if I had to guess I would say his is mild. The main issue we have is he doesn't want to be around a lot of people he doesn't know.
I pulled him out of school in the middle of 8th grade because of the bullying and being teased all the time. What some of those kids were doing to him really scarred him. Now he is 17 and should be in 11th grade. I have been told by the place that diagnosed him, he would benefit more from public school than being at home. They say this is because people and kids with this tend to isolate themselves most of the time. That they need to practice being in a regular school setting.
So I am thinking about getting him back into public school because im affraid he is going to live the rest of his life in his bedroom. However, I am going to check into a different school other than the one the kids that bothered him before are in, hoping this would help a little.
I'm just wanting to get some input from others on what they think. I'm just so affraid he will not try to live a little if I dont do this.