My youngest son was only five years old. He was in kindergarten and he had a hard time learning the alphabet and had some difficulty learning how to read. He also had a slight speech impediment. Despite these impairments he seemed to be getting along well in school and I wasn’t worried. Then one day he came home and told me that another boy was pushing him against the wall and choking him.

I immediately called his father. One time that I believe his father may have failed in his parental role. He told me that I should just leave it alone. He was a boy and boys just did that. I was enraged.

I didn’t know exactly how to handle it  but pretty soon a situation presented itself in which I was called to school because apparently my son had gotten into trouble. 

I went to school and I still couldn’t tell you why they called me but I knew if I was there I was going to use it to my advantage. I was going to tell the kindergarten teacher about the fourth grader who was bullying my son. I told her I didn’t know which kid it was but someone was bullying my son.

That teacher asked my son who it was that had done this to him. He identified the kid and then she pulled him into her class and humiliated him in front of my son. She said she almost had him in tears. That stopped the bullying. My son never complained about it again. 

That teacher not only protected my son but also taught that fourth grader that picking on a little kid isn’t the way to pretend your tough. 

Bullying can be stopped if the adults who see it happening intervene and do what this teacher did. If more teachers responded like this I doubt that bullying would be the problem that it is today. It takes just one smart teacher to stop a bully.