Rawr, Roar, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I've been biting my tongue and curbing my desire to be the Mommy Bear That Roared for months now; last night was the last straw.

Babycub and her friends have long been complaining about two boys in their grade that bully and harass a huge number of kids. They don't just pick on my kid and her friends - they are equal opportunity thugs who seem to love finding other twelve year old's weak spots and making the most of giving them shit about it. It's no secret; even the older kids in my classes comment about what little assholes these two boys are.

I've asked Babycub a few times if I could/should step in, but she didn't want me to play the "teacher trump card" and make things more difficult for her so I held back. Even so, I listened as she and the other kids muttered and grumbled about the non-stop crap that the boys dealt out.

Last night at 12:30 Babycub's phone rang. She was in bed, but the rest of the house was not and I looked to see who was calling her so late. It was one of "them" - yes, she has them on her phone - they were actually friends last September. That's always bothered her - that someone once considered a friend could be so cruel now.

The boys have taunting nicknames for the other kids - Babycub is called "Dictionary" because of her brain power. I try to tell her that's not a bad thing, but truly nobody wants to be teased. She now has resorted to lying to people about her grades - she doesn't want even her friends to know how well she does.

In any case, I put on my sleepy little girl voice and answered her phone. The call went like this:

"Uh... hello?"

"Hey Dictionary!"

"huh?"

"Dictionary, what are you doing? Are you busy selling dictionaries right now?" yada yada...

*lose the sleepy voice and change to avenging mommy voice*

"J? This isn't D, this is her MOM. Tomorrow I shall be talking to YOUR mom."

"Oh"

With that, I hung up.

I stewed and became angrier. I kicked myself for not saying anything sooner, but I truly do believe kids should try to work things out themselves. Additionally, it's a tough call to actually be one of the teachers when your kid is being directly affected by a situation like this. At what point am I taking advantage of my position as a staff person? I worry about things like that.

I called J's mom this morning. She was livid with the kid. I'd forgotten that last year J's sister was dealing with a horrible harrassment situation and J's parents had taken it all to court. The mom was really upset to find out her own child was now being one of the bullies in a situation. She asked for more information, and I said my daughter asked that I mention another little girl who wasn't really a friend of hers. That little girl is a quiet little bookworm who never bothers anyone. She also has a bit of a lisp, much to the joy of the Bullies who teaser her horribly about it.

J's mom was furious with her son. I guess I don't understand how it got this far without anyone saying anything to her, but maybe other parents were like me - telling their kids to work it out for themselves. I told the mom that had been the approach I'd taken, but when her son starts calling my house at that time of night to harass my kid, it has to stop.

I'm hoping it truly will stop with this.

If it doesn't, I have multiple back up plans that I'm going to use. They aren't as nice as simply calling the parents. The other plans are mean, but then again - I am the Mommy Bear sometimes.

Peace