We've taught them right

We've taught our kids right.  They are kind hearted and for the most part they follow the rules and respect adults.  I don't kid myself, they aren't perfect angels, but at the core they are really good kids.

But apparently we missed teaching them how to stand up for themselves.  This weekend has been an emotional one as I'm trying to take in the idea that my oldest son is being seriously bullied by his supposed best friend at school.  We've known for awhile that this kid was not the best kid for him to be friends with as he pressures Timmy to not talk to certain kids or to play what he wants with the threat of not being his friend anymore.  But yesterday we learned of many more serious incidents.  After some serious conversations we've learned that he's thrown away his lunches, punched him, stabbed him with pencils, and pinched him.  Just yesterday he pinched him hard enough to break the skin.  Talking to him about this is hard as he struggles to articulate the feelings he's having that make him continue to put up with this.  He expressed a fear of not having any friends if he tells this kid he won't be friends with him and also a fear of what he'll do to him if he's not friends with him, considering this is how he treats him when they are friends.

It just totally sucks that we should even be worrying about such things, the kid is only in First Grade for crying out loud.

So, I've taken a photo of the mark he left yesterday and emailed both the principal and the teacher.  They both responded quickly and very affirmatively that they will be looking into it and doing all they can to help Timmy stay safe.  Timmy has promised us he will not continue to hang out with this kid.  And we've talked and will continue to talk about going directly to an adult when anything inappropriate happens.

It just makes me so sad.  He is such a great kid and I know there are good kids in his class that want to be friends with him but he's not been hanging out with them at school because of this kid.  I thought it was upsetting when Johnny came home and told me a kid in his class had told him he didn't want to be his friend....this is way worse.  To see the look in his eyes when we talked about why he would let someone do this to him was so hard to take.  But mostly, it saddens and scares me that this has been going on and he didn't come to us right away.  I want my kids to feel safe coming to me with anything!!