My son was bullied twice on the bus

As a parent, we want to protect our kids from things in life, but the hardest part is knowing that we can't protect them from everything.

My oldest son is 9. I drive the kids to and from school because we don't live that far away. However my son is in a Saturday program that is held once a month at a different school.

A lot of these children are what I'd guess you'd call "problem" children. Maybe they don't have a great home life, maybe they are bullies, they live in bad areas which could be some of the reason some of them are mean.

I wondered how my son got invited to the program. The teacher in his class got to pick three students to go and my son was one of them. My oldest son is not a problem child and neither are the other students (from what I can tell from volunteering and seeing them over the years) that were picked from his class. We are very lucky that my son goes to a GREAT school. It's in an OK neighborhood, students excel and from what I can tell, there aren't that many problems.

My son can use some direction at times, he doesn't have a male role model (the kids dad chooses to not be in their life) so maybe that's why he was one of the students picked.

This program is supposed to teach the kids to stand proud (which is the name of the program) and teach them about respect, responsibility, etc.

Parents don't get the option of taking the kids to and from the school that has been chosen to have the program at. The school is a Junior High and one that isn't located in the greatest area. It's the school that my kids will move onto next after they are done at their current school so I'm worried about the things I've heard about that school but that's something to worry about at a later time. So parents wait for the bus with their kids at the school their kids go to. The bus picks up students and then takes them to this school.

My son can be a butt head at home and with his brothers but at school, his teachers have said what a nice young man he is, every year. Sometimes he gets in trouble for not listening but he's never mean to anyone at school, ever. He does not start fights, call anyone names, etc.

The first time my son got picked on was the second time he went to the program. Two boys were making fun of my son, calling him names and then one of them kicked him in the leg. When I picked him up, he had a little, white bruise. I was very upset, my son was upset. My son had tried to make chictchat with them and they picked on him. I thought about what to do and called the man who runs the program a few days later and he looked into it, talked to my son, suspended the boy who had kicked him for one time of the program.

This month for the program, they were not going to the school but to a bowling alley for a Christmas party. I thought my son would have a great time. When I picked my son up from the bus stop, I could see he was acting different. He would not tell me what was wrong. My son looked like he had been deflated, like someone stole all the fun away. He wouldn't talk to me, or anyone else in the house about if anything happened. I let him go play playstation in my Mom's room because that is a special weekend thing only.  A few minutes later I went in there along with  him and started telling him about the things I had done while he was in the program. After a few minutes I rubbed his shoulders and asked him if anything had happened.

He told me that he was sitting next to one of his friends from school when two boys in front of them and one to the left of them started using bad language to them. My son and his friend had been sitting there only talking with each other and were minding their own business when this happened. This continued for a few minutes and one of the boys knuckle punched my son in the arm (a knuckle punch is where you have your knuckles sticking out when you go to punch someone). My son told me that he never said anything to these boys and ignored them. His friend called them some of the names they were calling him and my son, back at them and one of the boys said he'd "Get" my son's friend when they got to the place.

I had my son show me how a knuckle punch was and how about hard it was. While we talked, my son was playing PlayStation aggressively. Probably because he could at least catch the bad guys in the game when he couldn't in real life.

I went and I talked to my Mom and friend about it. We were all so very upset. I asked my son if he wanted to go back or not and surprisingly he said he did. So he enjoys the program, just not the meanness.

I called the man who runs the program immediately and left a message for him. I let him know how very upset I was that this kept happening, how I didn't want my son to go back but my son expressed interest on attending again, etc. Then I let my son tell what happened in his own words. The message cut off so I called back and let my son talk on a second message.

On Monday morning at school, the man came and called my son and my son's friend out of class to talk to him. I'm glad that there was another student that saw/experienced what happened because I think it helped show that my son doesn't start any crap. After school that day, the man called and spoke with me. He is looking into it and those students will suffer the consequences.

The man did say he wished that my son had told him what happened right when they got to the place because he would have sent the boys home right then and there. I wish my son had too but I don't think my son wanted to be viewed as a tattletale. That may have been why I had to pry what happened out of him.

Sometimes, there are things that you just have to tell on someone for.

Bullying should not be accepted anywhere but especially on the bus where there was a bus driver and TWO adults who were supposed to be making sure everything was running smoothly. Since this happened twice, it leaves me to wonder just how well these adults are watching the kids on the bus. I'm not sure how many kids end up on the same bus so maybe it is difficult to watch all of them but still....

So that's where we stand right now.