Don't mess with Mama Bear

As I mentioned before, Maddie had an incident on the bus where she was struck by another student. After some deliberation about this, I decided to take the matters into my own hands. I knew the principal had been involved and I needed to know that Maddie would be safe on the bus and at school with this child there. I was never contacted about this incident from the principal OR the bus driver, so unless Maddie said something, I would never know about it.

I spoke with the principal this morning who cleared some things up for me. First of all, he didn't know who the victim was in this matter. He was informed of a boy hitting another student on the bus but was not given the name of the student. It wasn't until after I spoke with him this morning that he learned who it was. To complicate matters, this boy is in Maddie's class as well, which brought up the issue of bullying in the classroom. I told him that Maddie had told me of a few incidences in the classroom as well.

He informed me of the discipline process of the boy, because I wanted to make sure that this child was being punished for striking MY child. He pulled the boy off the bus and spoke with him and then phoned the child's guardians to inform them of the matter. The boy is being assigned a different seat on the bus (away from Maddie) and has been given "in-school suspension."

Given that Maddie and this boy are in the same classroom, he was going to personally talk to their teacher to make sure that she is aware of a possible situation (I had already emailed the teacher, but a little push from the principal can't hurt). He also was going to speak to Maddie one on one and let her know that she was safe and that the boy will not hurt her again. If he does he will be removed from the bus and/or assigned to a different class, or both.

I'm relieved to see that something is being done about this. I can't stand to see my daughter not feeling safe at school. I didn't think it's fair that I have to rearrange our lives to make my daughter feel safe at school, when clearly it should be the school doing everything in their power to make sure that bullies are punished and children have a safe atmosphere to learn. I think the principal is doing this for her. He said if there are more issues in the future that I should call him immediately so that he can remedy the situation ASAP.

I have to say that I am super proud of Maddie about the way she handled it. She doesn't like to tattle at school (the principal is going to discuss this with her as well) because she feels it doesn't do any good. Plus, the Maddie I KNOW would have defended herself. She would have hit back first and asked questions later. I know because I have watched her and her brother battle and Maddie come out victorious. So, the fact that she let a 6-year-old brat hit her and she didn't crush him is an amazing feat of self-control on Maddie's part.

UPDATED: Big Brother Bear Dylan wants to protect his little sister. SOOO....I have arranged it so that on the 3 days of the week that she rides the bus home, he will walk from the middle school to the elementary school and help the music teacher out with various "busy" tasks until school is out, then he will ride the bus home with Maddie and sit by her for protection. Tomorrow he is going to verify with the driver that this is okay, but I am pretty sure it is. If this doesn't work out then I will pick them BOTH up from school, but I don't really want to do that. That will be plan B. Let's just hope Dylan doesn't get in trouble for threatening a 1st grader.