This morning took much convincing to get Samantha out of bed, dressed and even a tiny bit motivated to go to school. She just kept telling me, "Mom. I don't want to go to school. Please don't make me go to school." How sad is that? That girl LOVES school! I finally told her that we were going to go talk to her principal and that we'd talk about staying at school after that. After I told her that she was a bit more cooperative. On the way out the door she said, "Mom. If I stay at school, please don't make me go to recess. I don't want to go to recess." It about broke my heart. I told her again that we'd go talk to the principal and then discuss it.
When we got to the school we walked Nash to his class before going to the office. When we got to the office the principal was able to take us right in. I asked him if he had a minute because we had an issue we needed to discuss with him.
Principal: "What's going on?"
Me: "Well, the 3rd grade girls that got called in here yesterday for bullying. One of them approached Samantha at recess and told her she got sent to the principal's office because she went home and tattled to her mom."
The principal looked at me with very big eyes and said, "Really?!" "Not only was her name NOT mentioned, but the last thing I said to them before they left my office was that they were NOT to discuss this with anyone. If anyone asked them why they were in the principal's office they were to say nothing or 'none of your business.' Which student was it?"
So, I told him which one and who's class she was in. He told me that he'd call her AND her mom into his office this morning. He told Samantha that she did do the right thing and she had the right to be at school without feeling scared or bullied. I told him that it had been quite a struggle to get her to school this morning because she didn't want to be there because she felt like all the kids knew who told and they all hated her now. I could tell he felt really bad about that. He told Samantha that if anyone said anything else or if anything else happened to let him know immediately.
I felt better after we left his office. Samantha still wanted me to walk her down to her class and tell her teacher to keep her inside for recess. I was willing because it was an improvement to not wanting to go to school. So, we walked down to her class. I asked her teacher if she got my email from last night - I sent her one telling her what happened and that we'd be in the principal's office in the morning. She said she did. Lucky for me two of the other 3rd grade teachers were in the room, one of which happens to be the teacher of the student that approached Sam. Sam's teacher asked which student it was so I told her. I told the teachers what the principal had said about calling her and her mother into his office this morning. Then I told Sam's teacher about the struggle I had getting her to come to school because she didn't want to be there or go to recess. I asked her teacher if she'd keep her in from recess because she really didn't want to go out because that's where all of this keeps happening. She was more than happy to let her stay inside. All three teachers again told Sam she did the right thing and that she shouldn't feel like she can't tell someone.
So, I'm a bit anxious to see how school went today. She's going home with her friend Samantha after school so I won't be able to talk to her until I pick her up at about 5. Hopefully today was a much better day for my girl.
