Bullying

I was bullied in school. Not because I was little, but because I was big. (and poor) I was 6'2" in the 7th grade and anywhere from 4 to 15 guys regularly beat the snot out of me in 7th through 10th grade. Things have changed a lot since then. Boys now bully like girls do. Name calling, "getting in their head", stepping on shoelaces, unspecified complaints (Mr. XXXXXXXX whiiiinneee, can you move meeeeee, XXXXXXXX is being weird again), throwing tiny bits of things. It's stupid.

My own son has been the victim of this stuff. It seems like the smaller boys are the ones who like to partake in this pastime. They gang up on the bigger kids and keep at them like a band of yapping chihuahuas. The bigger kids aren't going to resort to that kind of infantile crap and when they are finally pushed to the limit, they explode violently. You can't condone or permit the violence. The victim winds up getting in trouble.

I'm working with the victim in my class to make sure that he comes to me as *soon* as the others do something unacceptable. Don't let the anger build to the point where there is an eruption. I'm going to be visiting the kid in ISS and having yet another "come to Jesus" talk with my class.