WWYD~Bullying

[robinb]

My 6th grader is being bullied by a couple of boys in her class. They enjoy getting a rise out of her and she never fails to give them what they want *sigh*. Her school has an established policy in place that was successfully used in the situation in the beginning of the year. One of the boys and my DD were bumping each other in the hall, but it escalated to where the boy tripped my DD and started jogging by her and hitting her in the head on his way by. *That* was when I stepped in and we talked to her teacher and a counselor. We thought we had it under control after the kids were told that they needed to keep their hands, feet and bodies to themselves.

Unfortunately, the boys have started up again and my DD is still rising to their bait. They are sneaky and bug her when the teacher is not looking (they take things out of her desk and then throw them at her and they bump her in the hallway) but when she reacts by by grabbing her stuff back or bumping them back the teacher sees it. She filed a "bully report" on them on Monday and they turned around and filed one on her yesterday.

I am giving my DD advise and allowing her to handle it within the school system. My DD isn't perfect and she's not a total victim here since she does react to the boys in an inappropriate manner. She really just wants them to stop but she doesn't understand that she loses the moral high ground when she literally strikes back. I *just* found out yesterday that she was still having problems with these boys and I am a little upset that she didn't tell me before the bully reports were filed. I would have preferred to try to have the behavior addressed (on all sides) before it got out of hand.