Sticks and Stones... part 2

The saga of Lucifer continues.

Last Monday I picked Aidan up from school and asked how his day went. 

"Oh fine" he mumbled.

"Aidan," I prodded "what happened?"

He looked up at me with big eyes, and said: "well, there was pushing and shoving in line at the end of the day, and I bumped into Lucifer."

"And??????"

"And he said he was going to kill me" Aidan whispered.

Alarm bells went off.  Sirens were sounding.  Lights were flashing.

I grabbed his little arm and marched him into the school.  I couldn't track down his teacher so I had to stew on it for the night.

Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night.

The next morning I told Aidan that we needed to talk to his teacher. 

"No Mummy, I'm fine" was his response.

"How 'bout this?" he tried to negotiate. "If it happens one more time, THEN we'll go see Madame."

"No Aidan, we can't let this happen one more time"

By the time I got the kids to school, Aidan was adamant that we not talk to his teacher.  So much so, that as soon as the car stopped he hopped out and took off running.

I, however, am not so easily swayed.

I went inside and spoke to his teacher (whom I'd never met before - talk about one hell of an introduction!).  She immediately knew who Lucifer was (I didn't actually give his name) and said that she would keep an eye on things.

I then had a meeting with the principal about Parent Association stuff.  She and I get along very well, so I brought her up to speed on what was going on.

To my surprise, this is what she told me:

"Remember how back when we were kids the big put down was: 'That's so gay.' or 'You're so gay'?  Now it's: "I'm going to kill you.'"

Seriously?  Really?  How has it come to this?  How has it become the 'norm' to threaten someone's life?!?!

She then said that she'd keep an eye on things as well, and she told me to give Aidan some advice:

"Next time anyone says anything like that, you have him say REALLY LOUDLY: "Hey man, that IS NOT OK.! You stop it RIGHT NOW or I'm going to get the Principal."

After I left her office I was slightly mollified, but still not happy.  Was Aidan's year going to be ruined by Satan's spawn?

That night we practiced what the Principal said at the dinner table.  Shockingly, the kids thought it was hysterical!

The next day Aidan told me about an exercise his teacher had the class do.  The each wrote down something mean that someone else had said to them on a piece of paper.  The teacher then collected the papers and read them out to the class.  She talked about each one and told the class about the consequences of saying mean things (hurt feelings, low-confidence, etc.)  She also said that bullying would not be tolerated. Then she threw all the papers in the garbage as a symbolic: "throwing out negative words" activity.

I wasn't fully convinced.

Yesterday when I picked Aidan up from school I asked him the usual: "How'd it go Aidan?"

"Oh fine Mummy, he's not even in my class any more."

HALLELUJAH!!!

Is it wrong that I broke out in a huge grin and did a little dance?!?!?!?