So she comes in crying...

Every morning.
After getting off the school bus she comes in the door of the cafeteria and heads for the breakfast line.

Her face is blotchy and her eyes red.

And she's been crying almost every day.

She's not one of 'mine', and is always in a group as they pass, so I've never asked her what's going on and by the time she sits down with her friends to eat breakfast, she's calmed down and chats with them until they all head up the hallway to class.

Last week she came in, and Jack* the custodian was on breakfast duty. The breakfast person makes sure the kids get their breakfast eaten in a timely manner, clean up their dishes etc, and get to class on time.

When she came in crying, he stopped her and sat down with her to find out what was wrong. While she was in the process of pouring out her heart to him, saying, "He picks on me every day and he hits me when we are on the bus!!" Mrs. L* the bus monitor came in the door.

She saw the little girl crying and talking to Jack and stomped over to her with an angry expression on her face.

"You need to STOP this! You do this EVERY day! I want you to bring something to do on the school bus so that you don't focus on him every morning. This is ridiculous. I am sick up to here with you doing this every day. NO MORE, is that very, very clear???"

The little girl nodded meekly and walked way, crying louder than before.

I was appalled.

She had gone to an adult for help, the way they're taught to do, and another adult had jumped in and bullied her!

The only reason I did not go to the principal immediately was that I didn't know the little girl's name. I resolved to catch up with Jack later and ask him, because even though it's not really my place, I wasn't going to allow a child to be bullied if there was anything I could do about it.

I caught him on Monday morning. And I said, "So, on Friday morning when you had the breakfast duty, do you remember the little girl who came in crying because a boy was picking on her on the school bus?"

"Oh yes," he said, "That's Sydnee*. She and her brother fight ALL the time on the school bus and here at school. We've tried all kinds of things to get them to stop picking on each other, they hit and kick and pull hair and dump their backpacks on each other. One of them or the other is always in the principal's office for it."

He went on to tell me that it's really about 50/50, and that if he doesn't start something with her, she starts something with him.

Which of course changed everything.

Not that it's okay for a brother and sister to be so mean to each other, but the bus monitor coming in and being angry with the little girl wasn't what I thought it was.

I was glad I hadn't said anything to anyone before finding out the details.

Of course I want MORE details, like if the parents are trying to fix the problem and if the adults around them are monitoring them a little extra etc, but unless they end up in my program, I'm not likely to find out.

I argued with my brothers a bit, but never anything like that.

Kind of makes ya wonder, huh?