Bully

I never like it when the school calls my cell phone during the day, but I don't usually sweat it when I get a call from Kevin. This particular call from Kevin was not fun because in it, Kevin explained how the principal of East Sandy Elementary had called him and spoke to him about an "incident" that happened with Trace today. Turns out, a kid in his class named "James" who has taken to trying to torture Trace at every turn lately had BIT Trace THROUGH his coat and broke the skin. I understand that it happened at lunch and Trace had walked down to the office with the lunch aid and was crying so hard that it was hard for the staff to understand him as he explained what happened. He said they were eating lunch and joking around saying; "I'm going to eat you!" and the kid actually chomped down on Trace's arm near his armpit and put a hole in his jacket and flesh with his teeth! I was so MAD! I guess when they got Trace calmed down enough to talk to the principal, he did two things; 1) Told her that it "wasn't James' fault" and "he was just joking around" and 2) He asked the principal to please call his Dad and not his Mom about the event because his Mom would "freak out". (Which I kind of laughed about) We ended up having a meeting with the teacher (Ms. Alison Stroud) and the principal (Dr. Angela Wilkerson) and the school resource officer about the event. This kid James has been a problem for the entire class and they seem to think that because Trace is nice to him, he tries to "be his friend" but hasn't yet learned how to control himself. I told them all that Trace loves Ms. Stroud and is making good strides academically in her class, so I didn't want him to be moved to another class, but if ANYTHING like that happened again, I'd be making a formal complaint and insisting that they move James to another class. Trace was told that he has permission to move to another lunch table (you aren't supposed to switch once you sit down) if James tries to sit by him and his teacher vowed to watch the situation carefully. It was interesting to hear that both the principal and teacher said that Trace was giving James the benefit of the doubt even AFTER he'd been assaulted and kept trying to say he was okay so that James wouldn't get in trouble. Shows what a sweet, kind child I have despite the toughest of situations. Love that kid fiercely.