Bullies!

Today while I was waiting outside of Devon's classroom with her, waiting for the bell to ring I saw two little boys picking on this little boy, we'll call him C. They were teasing him and calling him stupid. There were two other moms right next to them, but just standing there. When one of them hit C (not hard of course, but that's not the point) I walked over to them and confronted them. It was obvious that they knew they were not being nice and not doing what they should be doing, because as soon as I was over there and started talking to them they put there heads down and avoided eye contact. So I told them to leave C alone because he didn't want to be bothered right now and tried to change the conversation to breakfast. I asked them what they ate and one said toast. I asked "With jelly?" He said "No, they don't have jelly." And that caused the two boys to start talking about something else, so I walked back to the end of the line of students where we were originally standing.

Then I saw them bothering C again. This time I told Devon to come with me and we stood right next to them until the bell rang. Poor little C was sitting on the ground indian style facing the wall, crying. I tried to talk to him, but it was pretty obvious he didn't want to so I just rubbed his back and told him I was going to stay with him. Then the teacher opened the door to let the kids in and I told the little boys to get up and get into the room so they couldn't bother him anymore, well at least for the moment.

I walk Devon and C into class and Devon goes right off to put her backpack up and so does C. I ask the teachers assistant if she knew where C's mother taught, because I had seen her the last couple of days and noticed that she had a school employee badge. Then I dashed to the classroom because it was two minutes until the bell was about to ring and told her that C had a tough time this morning because two little boys had been picking on him and left because I knew she had to get class started. She seemed to appreciate the news.

This whole situation made me MAD! First of all, it's only the third day of school and this poor little four year old is getting picked on by two little boys feeding off of each other. Where do these kids learn to call each other stupid. Devon is four and has never had the urge to call someone a name, much less stupid. And I don't want to hear that boys will be boys, because that is CRAP! Boys will be what you let them be and just because they happen to be boys doesn't mean they have the excuse to behave like turds.

I gotta get going, but there are a couple of positives from this situation. C hopefully now knows that it is not ok for him to be treated like that because someone stood up for him. And Devon hopefully learned that it is ok to if not absolutely necessary to stand up for those who aren't being treated nicely. Actions speak louder than words!