My Son Is a Victim of Bullying!

I would have never dreamed that my child would be bullied in Kindergarten!
In the beginning of the school year my son would come home telling me about this kid who pushed him around. I called the school a few times and even talked to the principal but was basically told "kids will be kids". He wasn't coming home with bruises or anything visible, but all he wanted to talk about at dinner time was all the bad things this child did at school. This quickly became old, and what I felt to be a tattle-tale session, so I decided to discourage any talk about this other child. I told my son, Jerry, that I wanted to hear about his day and what he did in school. Little did I know, at the time, the regret I would feel for making this decision.
A few weeks ago, I found out just how serious this bullying had become. Since about Spring break, it had become a huge struggle to get Jerry to go to school each morning but I had no idea why he didn't want to go. Then one day, while doing laundry I found a handful of pebbles in my washing machine. I went to Jerry(my rock-collector) and began lecturing him about putting rocks in his pockets. When I was done with my lecture, he innocently told me "but Mom, I'm not putting rocks in my pockets. The kids are pushing me down and throwing the rocks on me!". I listened to him and responded lovingly. This must have given him a "green light" to continue talking about what all had been going on at school. For the rest of the evening he told me story after story of times he had been pushed, kicked, hit, stuffed in his locker, name called threatened and on and on all by the same child. The stories came out like a flood that had been being held back. I quickly put two and two together and realized this was the answer to why Jerry was fighting with me every morning when it came time to go to school and why Jerry's meltdowns had skyrocketed in the evening! I decided to keep him home from school until I could talk to the principal. That was on a Friday. I got an appointment with the principal on Monday. The principal basically gave me the same, "I'm sorry but kids will be kids, but your child shouldn't be afraid to come to school so we'll talk to this kid". He also said he'd have Jerry's teacher give me a call. I was less then thrilled with his response but waited for the teacher to call me. Her response seemed promising. She wasn't aware that Jerry had been being singled out to be picked on but agreed that it seemed likely. She said she would move Jerry's chair to the opposite corner of the other child's and talk to them all about the classroom rules. So I made the decision to send Jerry back to school on Tuesday. Jerry was happy and confident that he would be kept safe! Jerry came home from school and had a two hour long horrible meltdown that evening! I had a feeling things must not have gone well at school despite Jerry giving me a sure it went fine response. Sure enough, four hours before school even started the next day, he began fretting about going. He said gym was going to be today and the child bullied him really bad in gym. I asked him again how Tuesday had gone and he admitted to being kicked a lot during recess and pushed down while waiting in lines and name called. Jerry said he was scared to go because no one could handle this child that was bullying him. I can only imagine Jerry's disappointment in those who promised to keep him safe. I called his teacher and let her know that Jerry wouldn't be in school again. She promised she'd get to the bottom of this and get back with me. I have not heard from her since and when I called to inform the secretary Jerry would not be coming today she asked for the reason of his absence. I told her, "he's scared to come because he's getting bullied". She asked, "Does the principal know". I told her, "Yes, but apparently they can't do anything about it". Her response, "Oh then I'll mark it down as a personal day". That's right, my child getting bullied at school is now my "personal" problem! Makes you wonder why they have an anti-bullying policy in the first place!