Earlier this school year, Soleil had a problem. There was a girl on the bus who picked on Soleil for having "brown hair". She also picked on another girl for stealing her name (the girls had the same first name). It came to a head when Soleil let her after school teachers know that this girl punched her on the bus and then kicked her under the seat.

Momma bear came out and so did, "Wait, maybe my kid caused it" Mama. So I gently asked if this could have been Soleil’s instigation in any way. The answer was along the lines of  "I can’t tell you who did this or what happened exactly" while shaking her head "NO!"

I got the full details later from Soleil and suggested she stay away from the girl for now. After consulting with Jay, we discussed the incident with the principal and suggested some ideas of how to prevent this. We also made it clear we didn’t want to punish the other kid, we just wanted to prevent this from happening again.

Most of the situation has been resolved. We have to remind Soleil that not so long ago, she had trouble controlling her own emotions so she shouldn’t antagonize this girl.

While relating this story to a friend, she got mad that I didn’t tell Soleil to fight back. I argued that at 6 the world is still black and white. Shades of grey aren’t there yet. As she gets older, we’ll work on when it is okay to fight back (yes, I believe there is a point where you have to fight back) and when it isn’t.

Then today I read this article. Yeah- In that case? In 6th grade? If ANYONE hit her or a friend or even just another classmate for being Jewish? I expect some ass kicking to be done.