Imagine you're 4 years old and you're going to school your first year. You're so excited and can't wait for all the new experiences. Now imagine you're 5 years old and for the past 9 months, every single day, you've been called "ugly", "disgusting", told that nobody wants you, told that everyone hates you. You're getting choked, punched in the stomach, hit, and pushed around! And imagine your teachers and principal wont do anything to protect you or help you. This is what happened to my daughter, Caity.

Since Caitlyn was 3 years old, watching her big brother head off to school for his first year, Caity couldn't wait to start her first year of school. She's always been anxious to learn, meet new friends, and feel grown up. Finally, she got to pick out her own bookbag, get her uniform together, and get ready to start her first year of school this year. There wasn't an ounce of nervousness or shyness in her on that first day. Just excitement! May 1st was her last day before my husband and I decided to pull her out of school. Her excitement to go off to school was no longer there. It was replaced fear and sadness. 

The bullying began all the way at the beginning in September and has continued for her every day. So much that she wasn't able to enjoy school anymore. No matter how much she wanted to go to learn new things, her day would be ruined by three other students in her class calling her ugly, disgusting, and that she was unwanted and hated! To make things even more frightening for her, she got choked, punched, pushed around, and threatened with bodily harm. Every day with a tough thing to get through for her. Until one day, she just couldn't put up with it anymore. She started faking tummy aches to try and stay home from school so she wouldn't have to face her bullies another day. When I finally asked her, on the fifth day in a row of her saying her tummy hurt too much, she finally broke down in tears to tell me how bad it is for her. It's a sad and worrisome day when a 5 year old, in her first year of school, is too fearful to go because of how badly she get bullied on a daily basis...and even sadder when the school does nothing to protect her!

We have gone to every resource we have about this. From the teacher, to the principal, to the associate superintendents, to the district superintendents. But nothing is done and all we hear is "kids will be kids" and that Caitlyn's degree of bullying encounters aren't "serious enough", even though she has been injured several times. It's not fair for our children to have to tolerate this throughout their day while the schools turn their heads and wait until something more serious happens and one of their students get really hurt...or ends up hurting themselves.