My 6 Year Old Son Was Held Down And Beaten By Two Other Students

by Robin
(United States)

My six year old son, a kindergartener, was running track while in PE today. I was called and told that he had a head injury and multiple other injuries and asked to come to school by the school nurse. His father and I immediately drove to his school. My son has two black eyes and the biggest knot on his forehead I've ever seen and I've been an ER nurse for TWELVE years. We were told that after interviewing six witnesses, it had been determined that our son was pushed by one student and held down on the ground while another student punched him multiple times in the abdomen and face. He had multiple abrasions to his face and knees.

My husband is a policeman and asked our son about the incident and he told us that one of his best friends came to his rescue and helped him get away from the children who were hitting him. He then said he ran to the coaches who were "sitting down" and reported the incident. He was sent to the school nurse and the other students were sent to the principal. Our son had to walk to the nurse's office alone and wait for us to arrive. The two aggressors were suspended for a week; however, their parents never showed up at school to address the situation with school officials. Our son stated one of these children had bothered him before but obviously never to this extent. He's handling this great after much positive reinforcement from us, the principal, the school resource officer, and even our pediatrician - who were all livid, but very supportive and positive. My questions are as follows:

1. How should the coaches/teachers who did not intervene or stop this "beating" be handled and what do we do, as parents, if there isn't some kind of action to address the fact that they never even stood up from their chairs nor accompany a child with multiple injuries to the office?

2. How do we handle the fact that he has to interact with these other two children daily?

3. At what point do we encourage self defence? We've always taught our children there is no reason EVER to hit - use your words instead - but we also never thought multiple children would beat our child up?

4. The pediatrician stated he had "blood behind his eyes" because he had been hit so hard. Do we need to address this further with school officials? Our son stated he had not said or done anything to provoke a confrontation with the other children and six witnesses confirmed this to the principal. Does this sound like typical bullying or do we have a bigger problem?