Bumps, Bruises, Cuts, Scrapes & Staples

If you're a mom then you know the feeling you get when you see the name of your child's school show up on the caller ID.

Before anyone says a word on the other line of that phone, your stomach drops to your knees and your 2 mile long to-do list gets shoved into the trash.

Most of the time it's something really silly.  Mikey forgot his glasses.  Elijah has pink eye.  Mikey's got a tummy ache.  Elijah has pink eye again.  Mikey broke his glasses.  You get the point... nothing Earth shattering right?

Yesterday I received that dreaded phone call, only this time, as the school nurse tried to explain what had happened, the sound of my 5 year old crying in the background was all I could hear.

I scrambled around trying to find two matching shoes & cursing myself for not following the Fly Lady's instructions in case this very thing happens.

I made it to the school pretty quickly and by then Elijah had calmed down.  The nurse explained that he had been pushed by another student into the metal door frame in the hallway and busted the back of his head open.  The cut was fairly small but it was still bleeding after applying pressure and she was worried that it might need stitches.

We left the nurses office and passed the little boy responsible... sitting on the "sad stump" with a smug look on his face.  I knew before I saw him who he was.  I knew before Elijah said his name exactly who had pushed him.  I knew it was the same boy that spits on my son.  The same boy that calls him names.  The same boy that I saw run over another little boy half his size on a tricycle.

In the emergency room the doctor takes a look and quietly tells me that Elijah needs two staples.  

It was over and done with as quick as it took to pierce a little girls ears and with a tool that looked remarkably similar.  No tears.  He was a champ.

via wikimedia.org

We drowned our sorrows with a couple of milkshakes and headed home to show Daddy the metal in his head as he calls it.

Now

I'm not mad at anyone.  I don't feel the need to place the blame.  Boys will be boys and push and shove and I'm sure Elijah has a dozen more head injuries to come.

BUT

As Elijah's Mommy, I need to know what we can do to make sure this doesn't happen again.

I need to know that I did what I could to prevent any future injuries.

AND

I need to know that this kid wont be pushing my son (or anyone else for that matter) around anymore.

SO

I took Elijah back up to the school.

To show off his shiny staples.

And make sure they know that this little boy put staples in my sons head.

But

  

Instead of being reassured that they take bullying seriously and they would be watching this little boy closely, they tell me that Elijah was pushing too (THEY WERE FIGHTING OVER WHO WAS LAST IN LINE AND WERE TOLD TO STOP AND THE OTHER BOY TURNED AROUND AND PUSHED ELIJAH WITH TWO HANDS) and the boy has been "punished".  

Case closed.

I used the word bully and they grimaced and acted like because the boy is aggressive with all the kids in the class and doesn't seem to single Elijah out that this isn't a true case of bullying.

Huh?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow.  I guess I didn't realize how angry I was about this whole thing until I started writing up this post and trying to get my head around it.  All day today and yesterday I've been having flashbacks of another incident that happened to Elijah 3 years ago at daycare.

Click here for the story on kltv.com

Since then I've tried to just sort of forget the whole thing.  It makes me so angry and there's not any good that can come from being that angry.  

But now it seems that these staples have stirred all that up again.