Bullying

Bullying - written or oral expression or physical conduct that a school district's board of trustees or the board's designee determines:  1.) to have the effect of physically harming a student, damaging a students property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to the student's person or property; or 2.) to be sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive to create an intimidating , threatening, or abusive educational environment for a student.
**Taken from Fort Bend ISD Student Handbook 2009-2010 pg. 68

Yesterday, my middle boyo was walking by two boys fighting at recess with one of his friends. He was punched in the arm which caused him to fall and while he was on the ground he was slapped in the face. When I went to the school to check on him he was icing his face. I could still see the slap mark. My boyo and I went to gather his things for the day (his head and arm were hurting him) and his teacher didn't even know what was going on. Someone had told her he had fallen and that was it.

My first question to him when we left was where were the teachers. He told me they weren't far away, but they were talking. Maybe it's just me, but I have a problem with that. Why were these teachers chit chatting and not watching the kids? And if they weren't far away why didn't they stop the two boys that were fighting before it could escalate into what it did? There are close to one hundred and fifty first grade students and only three or four teachers there to watch them during recess.

That afternoon when we went back to pick up the rest of my kiddos, my boyo saw the twit that slapped him in the face. The boy was still there. Now, this absolutely blew my mind. Our school is supposed to be a zero hate/no tolerance school. Why was this twit still there? Certainly slapping someone in the face is considered bullying, right?

According to the school district's own definition of bullying it is. When I brought this little fact up, I was told that it's not bullying unless it happens more than once.

When I inquired as to what punishment the other boys received, I was told they can't tell me. And then, I was told that when the Assistant Principal  spoke to the two little boys that were fighting, she couldn't really tell what my boyo's roll in it all was, but the teacher on duty had said that my boyo was "play wrestling" with the two other little boys. And that she wasn't sure why, if he was involved, that he didn't get in trouble too.

So, just like that my boyo went from being an innocent by-standard that got hurt to being included in the guilty party.

I informed her that our stories seem to not match. That in fact, my boyo was playing with someone else. That in fact, my boyo was just trying to get around those two twits. That in fact, the teachers on duty were too busy chatting it up to really notice what happened.

I left her office feeling like I'd been slapped in the face myself.

I'm not sure what our next step should be. Or if there even is a next step.

What would you do?