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Unrelated photo of my grandfather. |
As you may remember,
Pony Boy had a problem calling our house for a while. I've been suspicious of him bullying Emperor ever since they became "friends." Emperor is plenty smart, but he doesn't always catch the social cues.
It seems the calls would happen for a while and then suddenly stop. Every few months, Emperor would be the target again. I know it's Pony Boy and one other kid with a different voice. But we never knew who.
Lately the calls have escalated in their disrespect and the level of crudeness displayed. You know, I try to give a lot of leeway to children because that's what they are. They make mistakes. I kept telling them that this was
really not in their best interest to continue doing this.
Yesterday, we got a couple of very disgusting phone calls. One happened when I answered the phone and apparently? Someone else was calling in at the same time and leaving a horrid message on the machine. They are very crude gay sex, masturbation and drug-related phone calls. Screaming phone calls. It was just too much at that point.
Unfortunately, we found out our local police would do nothing unless I handed them the suspect's name and phone number. And even then, they're juveniles so good luck with that. It was very disheartening to hear. What the policewoman said was that often, the best thing to do is to involve the school's "resource officer."
Well, I'm mighty disinclined to involve the police in school when it concerns an after-school problem, but the point was made that the kids all go to school together, so... at least they can be made aware of the situation.
Sigh. So I went to see Officer "
Hammer-Time" at the school first thing in the morning at a friend's suggestion. (Yes, I have to have a nickname for everyone, ok?) He is a very nice person and took my tip about Pony Boy. He called the kid in to "chat,"
and of course kids are all overwhelmed by the badge, spill
everything, and now the cops/school know who did this. It was him and some kid I will call Twig Boy. If you knew their names? You'd say the nicknames fit.
Anywayyy.
BETTER than
anything I could have asked for? Is the fact that it turns out this
happened on the school bus. Which means the bullying counts as taking
place "on school grounds." Which means school consequences, sports team
consequences, and home consequences are gonna happen. The triad.
Just imagine getting that phone call, and learning your kid has just bullied a disabled child. For months. And wouldn't stop when his parents asked him to. Wouldn't want to be
those kids this weekend.