Comment: Ron, your story was moving.

Ron, your story was moving. So glad your son got to see you stand up for him even if the school authorities would not.

Just recently my son had a similar experience. He'd reported the behavior of a kid several times over the course of months to his teacher, who did nothing. This kid would do things like mess up his papers, poke him, ask him to fight, and repetitive verbal stuff. A few weeks ago, the kid was jabbing at my son's papers and saying, "What are you going to do?" over and over. My son finally said, "I'm going to punch you in the face." And he did. Right in the middle of class. Before the kid had even told the teacher, half the class was applauding my son. The teacher had to tell the kids how inappropriate it was to be clapping while the bully kid was crying and getting taken to the office.

My son got a half-day in-school detention, which he was quite proud to serve. His PE teacher even came into the detention room and said something like, "I can't say you did the right thing, but I can think it." For several days afterward, kids were thanking my son. Apparently this kid was a butt to lots of kids. I told my son to show a little friendliness to this kid and called the kid's parents to see if they wanted to get together to help these boys learn to tolerate each other for the next four years. Nothing has come of that yet. But the kid has been a whole lot nicer since.

My husband and I talked to our son about what other actions he could have taken and so forth, but we were actually quite proud that he'd stood up for himself and for other kids. We were quite proud of the other kids, who spontaneously supported our son's actions even while the teacher reprimanded them.