This morning, I had to have some serious conversations with my students about a bullying situation that I have been watching unfold for the past couple of days. It's the typical situation where a new kid arrives at a school and is targeted by other kids who have been there for a long time. Add the fact that they are females and that the new kid is beautiful and drawing the attention of the male students and you have a recipe for disaster. I enlisted the assistance of a lot of people to help me get this anti-bullying message out to my students including fellow staff members, parents of the children who were involved, and even older siblings of these girls. As a united front, we met with a few classes and discussed with them the fact that we have a zero tolerance policy regarding bullying or any kind of violence or aggression in school. Additionally, we talked to them about the dangers of being the victim of bullying such as low self-esteem and thoughts of suicide. We even … [Read more...]
Are Females More Prone To Bullying?
Did She Really Just Say That?
Many of you know that this past year, I had to deal with some parents behaving badly in my son's class due to the presence of "Mom Cliques" and the children that they are raising to think that being mean spirited to others is acceptable. One particular parent's son has been especially cruel to my son and to other children not only in class but also during organized sports. It's been difficult to avoid it since all of the kids participate in these activities together within our community. This past baseball season, my son and this boy ended up on the same baseball team much to my chagrin. You see, this Momma Bear has had to go up against this mom and son duo before. His mean antics continued right from the classroom to the baseball field and dugout. He even went as far as to call some of the boys on the team "fagg&%ts" when they ran out of gum and did not have a piece to give him. This was no surprise to me because this is the same boy who had called my son a … [Read more...]
When Teachers And Parents Behave Badly…
This week, I sent a lengthy email to my son's teacher about how displeased I am at how she's dealt with a bully in the class who has targeted my son all year. It seems the teacher has turned a blind eye to a lot of the bully's behavior, in my opinion. I'm completely fed up with the situation and I CC'd a copy of the email to the school's Principal, who has yet to even acknowledge the email. Below is a copy of the email that I sent: Dear Ms. ______,This morning, as we were getting ready for school my son shared with me that he was again excluded from playing ball with the boys by ______. He stated that ______ went up to you and told you that his parents said he couldn't play with my son. It seems this boy is also rallying the other children to not play with my son maliciously. Let me begin by saying that I find many of the comments that you have made this year to my son to be deplorable. This includes saying that you were surprised the two boys were playing one day … [Read more...]
Can Women Raise Men?
I was just having a conversation with my brother yesterday about how there are certain things that boys have to learn when they are growing up about being men and about defending themselves. It was interesting to see how our points of view differed on certain points because of our gender differences and it really made me think about the fact that it is extremely important for male children to have positive male role models in their lives. As good as our intentions are in raising our boys to be good men, he stated that there are just certain things that only a man can teach another man. This became apparent when our conversation turned to the topic of bullying and self defense. As a mother, my first reaction if my sons have issues like this in school is to alert the school authorities and to try to talk through the problem. My brother argued that this path does not always lead to a solution and that male children need to know how to defend themselves … [Read more...]
