Bad Bunny

The other day Maria (4th grade, you've 'met' her before) was crossing the room and walking toward me.
 
I'm not getting any younger, and sometimes my eyesight isn't the best, but since her lower lip was stuck out approximately a quarter mile, I saw it from quite a distance.

She marched over and plopped down on the bench at my table.

"I am very upset!! Shelly insulted me!" she said. 

"How did she insult you?"

"She drew a very unflattering picture of our class pet!"

"And how are you insulted?"

"Because it's not a nice picture and I am very angry!"

"Are you the class pet, Maria?"

"Well, no. But it's a very bad picture!"

"Did the bunny see the picture?"

"No. But it's a very mean picture."

"I'll come look at it. But if you don't like the picture, maybe you shouldn't be looking at it. Is the drawing inappropriate for our group?"

"No, but it's our class pet!" Meanwhile, Bella had gone over to see the drawing, and then walked across the room to stand with her sister, sticking her lower lip out, too. 

"Maria, if you don't like Shelly's drawing, you need to find something else to look at. I'm not going to tell people they can't draw things their own way. You don't have to like Shelly's artwork. It's okay if you don't. I even draw things I don't like when they're done. It's just a drawing."

She didn't look happy, but she and her sister walked away. They went to the game cart and started playing Stratego. 

I walked over to the art table where Shelly was still coloring the picture she'd drawn. It was a pretty good drawing of a bunny, but the eyebrows were sort of slanted so he looked grumpy. He wasn't deformed or colored weirdly or missing a leg or whatever else one could do to draw an insulting picture of a bunny. She said, "I don't know why Maria doesn't like my picture, it looks just like Mr. Sniffy."

We're at the point in the school year where kids are just done. They are looking for reasons to be aggravated or defensive and man, they're finding them.

But geez, why insult the bunny?