BULLYING SCENES
Melanie and I are best friends as well as great lab partners! Even Cassandra gave up trying to come between us. But, last week we caught Cassandra up to her old tricks. She was spreading a nasty rumor to break up the cool chicks, Mimi and Bibi.
On the way to Mr. Bittner’s science class, we overheard Cassandra say to Bibi, “We were wrong about Mimi, she’s a geek. You know how she is always showing off her new outfits? Well, all her clothes are hand-me-downs from her sister.”
I told Melanie that Cassandra was spreading the same lie about Mimi in the lunch room earlier today. “Uh oh, this is too weird,” said Melanie. “Mimi once told me about a scary nightmare she had in which she went to jail for a bad outfit, and guess who the judge was–Cassandra!”
We decided we couldn’t let Mimi’s nightmare come true. We knew that Cassandra probably wouldn’t listen to us. We had to tell an adult, but who would believe us? I remembered how Mr. Bittner gave Cassandra a stern look my first day of school after she called me a “freak” and talked about my “sorry” outfit.
Turning to Melanie I said, “Mr. Bittner knows how mean Cassandra can be, that’s why he put us together as lab partners. Besides, he knows us and would believe our story. I’m sure that he will help Mimi like he helped me!”
We hurried to the science lab to talk to Mr. Bittner before class. He agreed to meet us after school where we could talk to him alone.
I began by saying, “Mr. Bittner, we heard Cassandra spreading lies about Mimi twice today, first in the lunchroom and again in the hallway on our way to your class. She knows looking “stylish” means everything to Mimi, but she is telling anyone who’ll listen, that Mimi’s clothes are hand-me-downs from her sister. And what is wrong with wearing clothes from family anyway?”
Mr. Bittner thanked us and said, “You’ve shown real courage in reporting this to me.” He took notes on our answers to his questions of what we heard Cassandra say, who she said it to, and where. When we had finished, Mr. Bittner explained the school’s position on bullying and what consequences kids who bullied might expect.
He said, “the spreading of rumors is a form of bullying which is behavior addressed in our school’s discipline code. I’ll ask Cassandra to meet with me after school tomorrow to tell me what she did and said. We’ll discuss the consequences. ”
Before we left, Mr. Bittner asked us to respect Mimi’s and Cassandra’s feelings by not discussing this with other classmates. He told us that we had done the right thing by talking with him. We planned to meet with him again in a few days because he wanted us to know that the problem had been solved and everyone is OK. We felt good about Mr. Bittner’s trust in us, and for saving Mimi from her worst nightmare.
