A day in the life of a 6th grader

Mattie had a little trouble in school last week.  I am going to put the facts down in this blog...The purpose of this blog is not to point fingers or blame anyone for anything.  This is just a chronicle of what happened in Mattie's words.  Feel free to comment your opinions at the end.  PS... I am changing names of the other kids - to protect myself.

The setting is English Class. The class is taking a practice MCT test in which the students have to click in their answers on a clicker.  Mattie has not clicked in hers yet.  The teacher calls her out in front of the class and asks her why she has not done this.  Mattie does not reply to the teacher directly but does mutter under her breath that she did not want to click them in yet, but gets up to get her clicker.  Student A hears her say this an immediately tattle tells on Mattie for what she had said.  Again, Mattie mutters under her breath. "A, you are such a snitch".  Student A hears this also and YELLS out "Girl, I ought to slap you".

Mattie replys... "Go ahead and do it, I am not scared of you"

At this point, other kids in the class start to egg on Student A - saying stuff like "go ahead and slap her", "do it" and "dump her out of the desk"

Meanwhile, Student B (who has nothing to do with any of the above) accidently knocks some books out of the bottom of a desk.  Student A again YELLS at Mattie and tells her to pick the books up.

Mattie says she very calmly replied "I did not knock them out, so why should I pick them up?"

Student A AGAIN YELLS out at Mattie "Girl, you are so disrespectful, you should pick up them books!"

In response to this - the teacher, who did not see who knocked the books out of desk, orders Mattie to pick them up.  Mattie says "Yes Ma'am" and starts to get out of her desk to get the books.

Another Student, Student C ( who has had nothing to do with any of this, but is just trying to be nice) has already begun to pick up the books.  teacher tell her to "throw" the books back on the floor so Mattie can pick them up. - While Mattie is picking them up a boy student is staring at her.... and since she has her guard up and feels attacked she says to the boy - "There is no reason for you to be staring at me".

Student A hears this comment and assumes it is directed at her... AGAIN - she YELLS out "who said I was staring at you? I ought to beat you, that's why I can't stand you!"

By now, the whole class is laughing at Mattie and she has started to cry.  Thankfully the bell rings and Mattie is trying to get out of the class but the teacher stops her and tells her that she has been disruptive and disrespectful in the class.  teacher does stop Student A also and tells her that her yelling was disrespectful but she so she can't write Mattie up or she would have to write student A up as well.

Now, the teacher follows the two of them down to the next class and informs that teacher of  what had just happened in her class.  Mattie is still crying, the next teacher threatens Mattie with not being able to play softball for the school if she gets written up (this teacher has nothing to do with softball) and while the 2 teachers stand there and discuss it - the class is making fun of Mattie for crying.

Somehow Mattie manages to make it through the rest of the day.  She rides the bus from the Middle school to the high school and then rides the rest of the way home with her brothers in the car.  Her brothers said the second she got in the car she bursted out crying and didn't stop until way after they got home.  I talked to her on the phone and she was crying so much that I couldn't understand a word she said.

Later that evening after she had calmed down I sat down with her and got her to tell me what happened.. I all but interrogated her. I questioned her extensively.  Her story never changed.  Her story was not one-sided... she told me everything she had said and done as well as the other students. I wrote it all down.

The next morning her daddy and I were at the school early.  We met with the assistant principle and I recounted the events to him. I told him I did not want her to go back to that class if it was going to be under the same circumstances.  (This is the same class, and student A is one of the 3 girls involved when she was threatened to be SHANKED in the neck about a month and a half ago),  The Assistant Principle did not make her go to the class that day. She was allowed to go into the Library to do her work that day.  She was relieved at this - at first - but by the end of the day - she felt like she was being punished.

Assistant Principle talked to teacher, student A and other students in the class that day.  Then called my husband and said it may be better if she stayed out of the class a few more days.  Mattie did not want this, like I said, she had felt punished, she had missed her recess because of it and felt isolated.  I called the Assistant Principle back and told him that she wanted to go back to class and he said he would make sure that the 2 girls were not sitting anywhere next to each other and that he would stick his head in a few times during the class to make sure everything was ok.

That day went ok.. Mattie did not speak at all during the class - not to anyone. I have not heard from her today so I don't know how today went.

One more thing... Mattie has gone to this teacher numerous times for months and asked her to move her away from these girls that gang up on her.  She was moved after they threatened to SHANK her in the neck, but only after we went to the Principle and made sure of it.  (When the SHANKING threat occured, Mattie told the teacher that the girl threatened her and the teacher told her to go sit down, because she was disturbing the class) But she has still been sitting near one of the girls, Student A,  Mattie has asked the teacher to move her - she always refuses and gets on to Mattie.

I have been told by some other students and parents that student A does this kind of thing in that class all the time and sometimes the teacher just laughs about it.  She does it to other kids besides Mattie. Knowing this.. Who is to blame here?  the student or the teacher for allowing it.  Mattie and student A go to other classes together and this kind of thing does not happen....why? could it possibly be because the other teachers DO NOT allow it to happen?  And yes, I expressed this to the Assist. Principle. 

I will be so happy when this school year is over... last week was just a slice of what My baby has had to deal with this year.  I by no means think that my child is totally innocent or with out blame.  She has developed a chip on her shoulder and I am pretty sure that she over reacts to small things that she should just let roll off.  She does try to turn the other cheek, but you know what that means, it gets slapped too.  She just can't take much more of it.  She has been called names, made fun of for her size, for wearing glasses,  had ugly notes stuck to her back, been spit on, etc. etc.

Today I prayed for the Lord to give me a spirit of forgiveness for student A and for the teacher.  I also prayed that they can find forgiveness what ever has happened in their lives to make them the way they are.  I am going to talk to Mattie about forgiveness tonight.  Your prayers are welcome Always!



You feedback and opinions are welcome also.

Ronda