The Bully

So this past week our school took part in Anti Bullying Week. The whole week was focused on this not being tolerated or accepted. We were encouraged to stand up to bullying, and were taught what to do in the case where we are being bullied or see someone else being bullied. We all took a Pledge and signed a paper committing to this.
So with that in mind, I was really not happy when Ben came home with 2 accounts of being bullied this week.
One of the incidents occurred on the playground and the other on the bus, and I am very proud of the decisions Ben made, as the outcomes could have been much worse.
The first occasion was a conflict with another child on the playground. The children like to play a game called Beyblades, which is a spinning top like game. Ben traded tops with another boy on the playground, who after playing a few spins broke a piece off of the top. He insisted that Ben trade back the top he just broke. Ben was co operative and traded back the tops, leaving him with the broken piece. Then the boy got up, kicked the arena and broke it as well and walked away.
I was really unhappy to learn that Ben had been a victim of bullying, however so happy that Ben didn't "strike" back, he handled himself really well.
The next day on the bus ride home, the younger brother to the other child already mentioned lost his temper with some girls that were sitting behind Ben. This boy started threatening Ben with a fist saying that he needed to bring a knife to school and stab those girls with it...Ben seeing how angry this boy was, didn't know what to do. He felt threatened, and yet out of the concern of others agreed to the boys demands just hoping to calm him down, then turned to the girls being threatened and told them that he would never do that, he just lied to the boy to calm him down.
This is not the first time this young boy has threatened with a knife, and so out of the concern for our children and his I HAD to call the Principal of the school. Bullying cannot be tolerated, no matter the age of the children involved. These two boys have serious problems that needed to be addressed, so I hope that it is.
In both cases though Ben did not over react and was able to think through whatever emotions he may have been feeling and he made good decisions. I was so proud of him, and made sure I told him so!