Lil lost girl

We had an interesting thing occur here the last couple of days.

Our 6th grade daughter came home yesterday, practically ran into the living room and said, 'Mom, you remember -----, that girl I haven't gotten along with since about 2nd grade?' I furrowed my brow and said, 'Well, no, why, what's going on now?' She proceeded to dig in her jacket pocket while rapidly spilling out about some note a couple of weeks ago, she turned it into the bus driver, nothing was done, and at the end said, "And I thought that since the bus driver didn't do anything that I would show this to you and that you and dad would want to see it."

I looked at this picture, asked her what this was all about and made her slow down and tell me again what was going on. The kid can talk a mile a minute in cases such as this.

So, here's the story:

About a week ago, this girl, I will call her 'lil lost girl', wrote a note to another friend that my daughter and lil lost girl share. This mutual friend then showed our daughter this note which said, "____, How can you hang out with ____. She is such a bitch and she should go to hell." This note was in reference to our daughter.

I asked my girl what she's done to lil lost girl to make her so angry, what happened to this alleged note as I was leaving my chair to call the school. My daughter swore up and down she has done nothing, they just have never liked each other. And the bus driver ignored it. (Keep that little tidbit in mind please.) She ignored this note.

Ok, I bet you're dying to know what the picture was on this piece of paper she handed to me that prompted an immediate phone call? I will do my best to explain.

It's two stick people. Our daughter's name is above one who's heart is scribbled black with a hole and is bleeding with it's caption bubble that says, "I'm dieing" . The other stick person is peeking out from behind a wall/door with 'me' written above it and this one is holding a gun. And at the bottom it says "I HATE _____."

Remember I told you to keep in mind that the bus driver did nothing with that note? Well, on the bus yesterday, my daughter and two of her friends were heatedly telling this girl that if she had nothing nice to say to my daughter than she shouldn't say anything at all. (perhaps they should have written it in a note!) Lil lost girl replied, "I'm not saying it, I'm writing it". (She gave this picture to the mutual friend btw who gave it to my daughter after lil lost girl left the bus)

Ms. bus driver in turn yelled at my daughter and her friends to knock it off or they would be moved elsewhere. (if they would've have told this girl as much in a note then nothing would have been done!)

My immediate thought was that perhaps my daughter and her friends may have been harrassing lil lost girl prompting some anger or something. Then I was very angry that this bus driver would turn it around on the kids that were actually speaking some sense and wondered if she would have tossed this picture off as just kids being kids.

Pat and I took this very seriously, as a threat to our daughter. You know, the 'zero tolerance' policy, Columbine and the various other school shootings. It is a worry when you send your kids to school everyday.

Well, this morning, after tapping my foot for 2 hours after the school counselor was supposed to return my call, I called the school back and got immediate action from the Vice Principal. She was very kind and seemed to sound a little concerned and disturbed. She hung up with me and about 2 hours later I got a call back. But I made it very clear that I only know one side of this story and if in fact our daughter has done ANYTHING to provoke this we need to know so we can take care of things on this end as well. I didn't call with the intent to make our daughter out to be the rose! There is just no such thing as a perfect person!

I was obviously very relieved to hear that action was being taken but mostly that my daughter hadn't done anything to provoke this. That must sound really bad but I think with some parents the fear of their child being a complete shit does and causing such violent thoughts does matter. It does for us.

The little girl fessed up to all of it, the note, the picture and the hate but there was no reason given. Our 10th grade daughter reminded me that her older brother had caused some trouble a few years back. That he wasn't the nicest kid. And I remembered the tales that came home with our two older daughters.

Why do I call her the lil lost girl? I think that my readers are smart enough to figure that out. I am not angry with this little girl, I am just really sad for her. She is so young and to have such ideas, whether they're serious or not.

I was told by the VP that she asked both girls if they watched the news or were aware of the school shootings that have occured. Our daughter said Yes and this other girl said No. Whether or not she was just being smart or not I will never know but to hear that really saddened me. When my daughter was asked if this picture scared her she of course said yes. Why wouldn't it?

Punishment was administered and orders from the VP that these two should just stay out of the others way and end it at this is what we are left with. This family lives a little ways down the road from us, thankfully, where we live that means a couple of miles or more. Life will go on but not blindly. I hope that something constructive will come of this, in a perfect world, these girls would hug and make up but I don't know that that is really an option. Neither girl showed any interest today in the VP's office. So once again, it's a wait-n-see game....