Monkey

Monkey's life at school has been getting a little rough. He confided in me that he is being teased in the boys washroom. It seems that they were teasing him while he was using "the bathroom with no door". As a female it took me a couple of minutes to understand that this is a urinal he is talking about.

We sat down (he and I) and we talked about some things that he could do to try to stop the teasing. We came up with the fact that he could use a stall and close the door.

Teachers can only work with what they know. On Monday he yelled at the boys and told them to stop. His teacher heard this and, not knowing what was going on, isolated Monkey so that he would not cause trouble. On Tuesday and Wednesday he was sent to the bathroom after the others and went on his own. This solution did work for him since he wasn't being teased, but didn't address the root of the problem.

I sent her an email letting her know that he was being teased and asking her if she had noticed anything. She looked in to it, figured out who was instigating the issue and has isolated him instead. Monkey is using a stall with a door (one of the solutions that we had discussed) and the other boy uses the washroom once the rest of them are done.

This has had a real impact on our Monkey. He got 1 of three stickers on Monday, 2 on Tuesday and 2 on Wednesday. His worst week in a LONG time. He got three yesterday, lets hope that it continues today. I am feeling like a good parent for being able to gently help him to work through the problem. It isn't world peace, but it helps.