A bully and my boy

This week has been rough on Reed. He has gotten off of the bus in tears once. The other days he was clearly unhappy, unable to talk without fighting the tears. By Thursday I demanded to know what in the world was going on. After weeding through his excuses, "my jeans are too itchy, I am just tired," he finally told me that he is being picked on by a kid in his class. I immediately emailed his teacher. I also told Reed that Mom and I would take action and that he has to tell us when things like this happen so we can help him.

The teacher replied this morning and told me that she had talked to Reed about it and will keep a close eye out for any trouble, and I feel confidant that she will. Since I really have not been up to school much this year, I decided to have lunch with Reed today, lay my eyes on the alleged bully and meet some of the other kids that Reed talks about. I knew right away who the trouble maker was. He yelled down the table to us, wondering whose mom I was, as if I needed his permission... Thug is a good word to describe this kid.

After lunch I was saying good bye and his teacher appeared. She told me that she wanted to chat, so I followed the class to the playground and had a little discussion with Mrs. S. I was able to observe as we chatted, and I saw the problem. The thug does not seem to single out his victims. He is just an aggressive, spazzy kid who has little respect for authority. I can totally see how our sweet and sensitive Reed would be upset by that type of interaction, especially if it is happening frequently. The thug then started a fight on the playground right before my eyes, threw a few punches over a ball. I have a pretty good idea of what is going on here. I am confident that Mrs. S is doing and will do what needs to be done to deal with this kid. How sad that this kind of behavior presents itself at six or seven years old. Most of these kids are still babies, in my eyes.

This afternoon Reed got off of the bus for the fist time all week with a smile on his face. He sees that his moms and his teacher have his back. A little security can go a long way. We will do whatever it takes to teach him how to deal with these types of kids because I know for a fact this is just the beginning and there will surely be more thugs to deal with.