The bully and the bus part II

Although I wish it were different, I have the sinking suspicion that there are going to be many more parts to the "bully and the bus" saga. Ours seems to have abated for now, but I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed for tomorrow, which is, like all other Mondays, going to be come much too soon.

Making Jimmie take the bus on Thursday did not make any difference. If nothing else, it made it worse, as Bully decided to tell Jimmie, both on the bus and at school, that "something bad" was going to happen if he took the bus again. Fortunately for Jimmie, both evil stepmom and Dad do not take to threats lightly, and five minutes after Jimmie walked in the door with that story, Dad was on the phone with the same assistant principal I had spoken to on Wednesday. Much to our dismay, the man had not yet talked to the bully. Yes, you read that right. Even though I had personally received his assurances that he would resolve this issue just a day earlier, he had not called the bully into his office. I thought husband-dear would burst a vein when he heard that.

Mind you, this is the same school system where first graders have been put in suspension for having their shirt tails untucked. The same school system that has five pages on appropriate dress code, rules about which hair styles are acceptable and which are not, and the same place that forbids high school students from engaging in, and I am literally quoting this off the school board website, "The innocent little practice of holding hands". This is also the same school system where abstinence is taught as the main way to avoid any kind of "nastiness", and where in the past children who have defended themselves from a taunting bully with a slap or a kick, have been expelled for "grossly violent behavior". And to top it all off, the school has dedicated three pages of its handbook to "anti bullying policies".

So, tell me again why the assistant principal did not call the bully into his office the moment he stepped off the bus on Wednesday? I mean, I try not to be judgmental (and trust me, that takes a lot of effort on my part), but it looks to me as though that school has its priorities slightly confused. Fortunately, husband-dear did not need me jumping up and down and making faces to get that, and he told the principal how he felt about that call. He also took his air force attitude a step further and threatened to involve the school board and the police (I'm surprised he didn't include the governor's office and the military too) if no steps were taken immediately.

The principal promised to do better, and we were once again faced with the arduous task of comforting Jimmie and getting him to take that bus the next day. Fortunately, on Friday, husband-dear went into work a little later, so he had the honors of dealing with a freaked out kid, who once again expressed his fear and frustration in our driveway at 6:30 in the morning. It's a miracle the neighbors haven't called DFACS yet. We followed Jimmie to the busstop, and parked behind a big SUV, to make sure that if Bully acted up again, we were there to see it. Nothing untoward seemed to happen, which was probably aided by the fact that Jimmie stood about 200 ft away from the actual pick up location.

And that afternoon, we received a call from the assistant principal, that he had talked to Bully after his fellow busmates had "ratted him out". Bully admitted to his behavior, broke down and cried, and was "severely punished", although the assistant principal could not tell us what the punishment was. I'm imaging two years of scraping gum off desks, or perhaps fifty whacks with a paddle, or maybe even twenty years of detention.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow morning.

But right now - thank you for all the signs of support. We've been telling Jimmie to be courageous, and it helps when he knows that there are so many people out there rooting for him.

Hopefully tomorrow, we all, this blog included, will be able to return to the order of the day.