HI Everyone:

I'm writing about my daughter.  My daughter started horse back riding when she was three years old.  All the other children in our neighborhood played T-ball soccer, basketball, and softball when they got older.  My daughter who's in 5th grade started to get teased about her love for horses in kindergarten.  It first started out as name calling my daughter is shy to begin with so the name calling just made her more closed off.  In first grade there was a boy who always singled her out on the playground and would hit her or push her and of course the name calling.  Her teacher said this was his way of showing he liked her.  I gave him one last chance to see if that was the case and sure enough it wasn't.  He pushed her into a wall and she almost passed out.  That was the last straw for me.  It was to far into the school year for him to be moved.  I told the teacher that he will not sit near her, or look at her in anyway.  If he touched her again the parents will hear from me not you.  Needless to say it stopped and he was held back.  Each year it continues, and each year I have to speak with her teacher.  This year she was cornered in the bathroom by two girls that she didn't even know. They teased her about being a smelly horse girl.  They always say she smells like poop.  She said she remembered me telling her if she felt trapped to move away from the situation.  She felt scared and didn't know what to do.  This happens because she rides and owns a horse.  It's to the point that she hates going to school.  She is still shy and I wish she would stand up for herself, but she is the type of girl who feels like she is hurting the other girls feelings.  The teachers don't do enough to help with the situation because they say it's not exactly bullying.  I'm sorry but being called names is a form of bullying and I have a voice for my daughter.  We talk and I always ask her would she have liked to play those other sports to have those friends, and she tells me "No way" I love being able to ride a horse where some of these sports these girls or boys play come and go where my daughter wants to go all the way and to be in the olympics one day.  Maybe when that happens she will find her voice.  But these girls are mean and I'm just happy they didn't push her down, because she will always get back up.... Sorry for my rambling but that's what we deal with day in and day out!!!!

Rori Liebmann