Wednesday, August 29, 2007

A Relieved Mom

Juliana started 2nd grade yesterday. Her elementary school has 1st-5th grades. Last year, she had a bully the entire year. The boy was on her bus, and when things got out of hand with the older kids, all of the buses were assigned seating. For about a month, Tyrome sat right in front of Juliana (he was in the front row near the driver, she was right behind him), which I didn't know that entire time. When I found out, and that he was being sneaky so that the driver never knew about it until Juliana would start crying, I called the school and had her seat changed. The school has a strictly-enforced zero tolerance anti-bullying policy, run by the Vice Principal.


This kid was a 3rd grader when it started. About mid-year, I realized that this kid lives about 6 houses down, across the street. I was fully prepared this year to go knocking on his mother's door to talk to her, because by the end of last year, this kid was approaching Juliana off the bus on school property just to tease her and bully her. At one point, near the end of the year when it got really bad, he was late for the bus and had to run to our bus stop to catch it. I stopped him and told him that I'm Juliana's mother, and although she did NOT tattletale on him, I knew that he was bullying her. I told him that it had to stop "or else." He looked shocked, but he left her alone on the bus AND at school for the month or two that was left of school. I hated that kid, and damn it, I don't care if he was just a kid himself. Trust me when I say he knew what he was doing. He would even get his neighbor friends (same age as him) to join in.


Well, in the past month, four houses on our street have gone up for sale. Imagine my delight when I realized that one of the houses was Tyrome and his family. So today, second day of school, Juliana comes into the house with the worry I'd noticed gone from her face. "MOMMY! MOMMY! Tyrome's house is not only up for sale, but they ALREADY MOVED! To a NEW TOWN! He's never going to be on my bus or in my school again! No more bully for me!!!" She was teary-eyed she was so relieved and happy, and let me tell you, I was never so relieved FOR her. And what's nicer? The other boys on our street that would join in with him told Juliana all of this so that she wouldn't have to worry any more. They didn't like that she was scared.

1 comment:

Julie said...

Oh I so worry about bullies. I'm not sure I could handle it as well as you did. But what a relief the problem is no more!