Tyler arrived home from school yesterday with an injury. He had been hit in the face with a piece of ice that the kids were throwing around during dismissal. However, Tyler's injury wasn't an accident.
While the snowballs were flying, Tyler stood behind a kid and in jest said he was using the kid as a human shield. This was not exactly true since the snow was not being thrown in the direction of Tyler. Yet, when Tyler went to get on the bus, he heard his name called. When he turned to see who was calling him, his human shield said, "This will teach you to use me as a human shield" and he threw the ice in Tyler's face.
Tyler is embarrassed and did not want me to make a fuss. Still, one of the dreaded duties I had as a teacher was bus duty. That meant that I had to stand outside during dismissal and wait until all students were on the buses before going back indoors. Obviously it sucked having bus duty in the cold months, but a job is a job. Duty calls. Whatever. Where, then were the people on duty when Tyler was getting on the bus?
I am not so naive to think that the presence of a teacher would have kept Tyler fully safe; however, I suspect the kid who threw the ice at Tyler would not have done so where he did. Standing on line to get on the bus is a place teachers would be looking...or would they?
Rod and I watched the end of a Without a Trace episode that showed a kid who tried to commit suicide because he was so constantly bullied at school. While I don't believe Tyler is bullied to that extent, I am beginning to wonder how bad his school day really is. Boys being boys is rough. When a kid doesn't want to go to school I have to wonder about the connections.
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