This morning--I send Koda off to school only to have him come back in screaming and crying. :eek: I thought his sister had been hit by a car; but, just as traumatic for a boy just hitting puberty someone had spray painted in large black letters KODA IS GAY!!!! on the sidewalk in front of our house. :mad:

After calming Koda down and promising that it would be gone by the time he got home from school, he finally allowed me to shuttle him off to school.

So, from 9am to 3pm my sister, the city man and myself were on our hands and knees scrubbing the concrete with wire brushes and every chemical known to mankind which was nicely donated by the local hardware store *thank you Michelle*.

On my last quick inspection at 3:30pm right before Koda would have gotten off the bus I was telling my sister on the phone that we not only managed to finally rid our lawn of the graphity but managed to bleach that block of concrete.

I happened to look down the street towards the school in time to see my son throw a well directed punch to the town bullies face. :eek: Never having actually seeing my son in a fist fight I took off at a dead run down the street screaming at the boys to stop fighting, my sister on the other line was smart enough to remember the baby and came running over to keep an eye on him while I chased the boys down.

As I'm running the four blocks to the school screaming for them to knock it off and some very not nice words because they weren't listening to me Koda starts running from the bully into the street looking much like a penguin with his arms straight out and stiff legs egging this 15 year old gauky kid to chase him down. So, now I'm not only running down the street screaming my head off for them to knock it off before they get hit by a car but I'm laughing too. :rolleyes:

As I come running up they both stop and look at me as if to say "What?" :faint:

I looked at Koda and pointed towards the school and yelled march, then looked at the boy and pointed, he started babbling all the excuses "I didn't start it" "it wasn't me he was fighting with" "I have homework". I told him "we can do this the mature way or I can send the principal after you". Both boys walked quietly behind me as if on their way to the electric chair.

When we got the principal's office I informed the secretary that these two boys were fighting on school grounds. She looked at the bully and rolled her eyes and then a look of pure shock crossed her face when she noticed Koda trying to hide behind me. I don't know if its because of who the other boy was or that I was turning my own son in. Didn't ask, don't really care.

The principal overheard me speaking with the secretary and came out of his office and ushered the two boys in then asked me to join since I had witnessed the fight.

What we found out was that Andrew admitted to painting those words on our sidewalk and Koda had had enough and decided that if the school couldn't stop him he would.

Both boys will probably get 3-4 days in school suspension and Andrew still has to deal with the police for destruction of public property since the city man called it in.

Its hard to punish him when he's taken so much crud from this kid in the past 5 years but its hard to let the incident slide too. I'm sure we'll come up with something crafty.

So, how was your day? :rolleyes:

I want to hug you for that. And then I want to laugh at your wonderful sense of humour.

You go girl!

My day? Nothing like that!

So...from the male martial artist perspective...clean punch? Glad to hear it. Tell him the best shots are right on the place where the jaw meets...if you can dislocate disorientation from pain should make the rest of the fight a walk in the park. Heh...I beat up more than my share of bullies in my day...I might have been naive and terrible socially, but I held my own.

Proudest day of my life was when I took three kids in a period of 2 minutes...first kid made fun of me while I was at bat, so I backhanded him with the bat (it was a crappy plastic one, indoor softball, don't worry), then his cronies came at me, so I gave one a quick kick in the gut...the last one tried to wrestle me, but when he tackled me I just did a back roll and flipped him over me, landed on top, and had my knee on his throat when the teacher broke it up...fortunately I went to a school that solved fights by giving the kids boxing gloves, so I only got some work details...hooray ex-military academies!

Anyways...probably not what you're looking for now, but it's good to hear your boy holds his own. :)

Love you!

I'm proud of you for sticking to your guns and letting your son suffer the consequences for fighting, even if the bully deserved it. Most parents don't these days so I'm sure the secretary did give you an odd look. I ususally find that most of the time guys actually can learn to get along after they fight. Girls are another story.

Here's a website that addresses bullying...I just got some info for teachers from them today (their mag) and it looks like it has a bunch of good ideas. Maybe it'll help Koda. Theya have a section for kids and parents as well.

http://teachingtolerance.org (http://teachingtolerance.org/) There is a section about bus bullies in it this month.

GOOD FOR HIM!!!!
Who ever said pasafism was a good choice. I know, I know "dont listen to the big neanderthaul" But if you dont have your self respect then what do you have. I tell my daughter, and my kid brother. "Cut the head off the snake before it has a chance to bite you" Because once the momentum start building then its hard to stop it. So when all else fails use swift and blinding violence.

You know Futs, schools have rules regarding bullying, harrassment and everything else under the sun. First, I'd address the school board and threaten serious law suit if this kind of behavior isn't put to a stop immediately. Then, I'd file a hate crime report with the local police and explore your options in civil court. Also, take it to the local news.

Your son took action today because he'd had enough, but next time this total a**hole kid might not stop with just spray paint. This is how good kids get killed. I don't want to scare you, but we've all seen our share of bad things happening to good kids.

Anyway, glad you handled it the way you did & have kept your sense of humor. Now, turn into that vicious mama bear we know you can be and kick some major butt!

Hey where's my stinken post?

Maybe I disobeyed forum guidelines *naughty, naughty* I doubt it, probably did something stupid like forgetting to hit post reply. lol

Koda has not had any trouble with this kid or any other kid since the incident. In all honesty he's actually excelling lately. Doing great in football (elected captain last week), made the Quiz Bowl (still not entirely sure what that is), has a girl friend (cute, cute, cute~~she better not corrupt my sweet angel lmbo).

I want so badly to let my guard down but these next few months seem to be when his depression hits hard so I'll keep my eyes out and hopefully all I'll be noticing is how great a man my boy is gonna make.

Can you tell we had a good day today? lol
We'll see what I have to say tommorrow. lol even harder
C.

CAPTAIN OF THE FOOTBALL TEAM! Get out of here! :cool:

Now, if he can only help mom learn that electrical appliances require a source of power to operate.

Hey now in all fairness it could have been his jittery feet that knocked the cable loose. Of course had I been thinking I would have grilled the kids to their prospective area of expertise and been online a lot sooner. I could have asked Lexi if I had paid the bill, she can't remember what she had for breakfast but she can remember every date in history and phone numbers~~go figure. When she informed me that I had in fact paid the bill I could have asked Koda to figure out the computer since he's the only one who knows how to run our new dvd/vcr player and he probably would have figured it out and had us up and running.

rotflmbo...Cherity...your post here was well-timed. Yesterday, for the first time in my teaching career, I had to break up a fist fight. Two 8th grade boys, each at least a head taller than I am were completely knocking each other senseless outside of the cafeteria, before morning announcements. One, a particular favorite of mine for the past three years, was really getting in some serious punches. Today is his birthday, and he's at home, suspended. I hated to do it, but not much else I could do :( . I appreciated your humorous and very real account. I can only imagine the next time I see his mom at a football game. Sighs.
In other news, today my daughter's principal called me in to his office to give me a heads up that her highness is getting a detention for three tardies to school in one quarter. This is a bad thing, mainly because IIIII bring her to school every morning before 8:15 am, and the late bell isn't until 8:40. There's no reason for her to ever be late. I decided not to warn her in advance. So, some time today, she will be summoned from class to the principal's office with her agenda planner to face her consequences. Silly as it is, my heart is breaking for her already. I know she's going to feel embarressed, and be afraid to show me. And, I'll have to appear stern to get her to realize she has to be in homeroom on time. Ugh. I only ever had one detention in my life, and the experience was awful enough never to be repeated. I can only hope this is the case for her.
Big hugs to you, Cherity, and to Koda.

You did the right thing. I may be crazy but I think that your boy did the right thing as well. That said he deserves his punishment as well. Is this a contradiction? I dont think so, I mean even in the adult world where we should know better if I, somone i love, or my property is attcked then the attacker (if they know me) knows the consequences. At the same time I do as well and always take responsibility for those actions. Fighting is not cool, I use to get off on it as a younger man but when it comes down to it somtimes if one punch can end mental and physical danger that somone poses to a loved one then well the ends justify the means.

ms I'm sure your daughter will survive and she'll learn to be more time conscious in the future I'm sure. As for that boys mother you will be bumping into at football games I'm willing to bet (no wait, I know she is feeling a lot more anxiety over your next meeting then you are. Just smile, say "hi" and let it go from there, if she chooses to be angry with you then she is one of those sad misguided mother's who belive they have raised an angel and she should be pitied).

pith,

I too lived by my fists in high school believe it or not, something about a small child looking at you under a microscope changes your perspective on pretty much everything. I didn't want my kids to live angry.

Koda survived his in school suspension rather well actually. The principle decided to keep Koda in his office with the hopes that they would bond and Koda would be comfortable coming to him in the future. It worked, smart man that one!!!!

He was really surprised at Dakota's intelligence on a wide range of topics from animals, reptiles, politics, medicine, etc. He told me that when uninterupted by other children Koda completes a day's assignments within two hours lol like I didn't know. The result was a lot of time spent talking I think it did Dakota good to hear another man's opinion matched his father's on what it takes to be a man in todays world.

Hoping, hoping, hoping for more good days to come. At this age ya just never know.

The result was a lot of time spent talking I think it did Dakota good to hear another man's opinion matched his father's on what it takes to be a man in todays world.
. . . being big enough to sit on you wife at football games? :eek:
Sorry, Futs, that is one visual image that makes me laugh every time I think of it. The Iguana story almost beat it.

yeah i want to hug you and laugh with you.