When I was a girl in grade four, a sick boy cornered me on a school play set threatening that if I came down he would attack me.  He was in grade six. This was just before the morning school bell and on the play park with a teacher fifteen feet away. My friend and I tried screaming for help, but when the boy screamed over us we were ignored. Finally we saw that the teacher was leaving and the only way to get away was to make a run for it. I tried to get away but he yanked me down the slide, threw me to the ground, punched and kicked me repeatedly and flipped me over to beat the other side of me. Finally when he was done, to cover his tracks he said "Don't ever hit me again" and stomped off. I was in shock and concussed but my friend picked me up and helped me over to the teacher who had his back turned the whole time. When he called the boy over, instead of punishing him and checking to see that I was alright he just argued with the boy about why he should be punished. The boy threatened to hurt me again if he were punished and reasoned that since he was bigger and a boy he should be able to do what he wanted with me. I was just told to sit through the morning anthem even though I had a concussion and two black eyes. My parents were told nothing, and when I did tell them, their angered phone calls were met with the explanation that "these two kids just got into a fight". Later when it was clear that the school's lie that we had both been fighting was not being taken, they tried to sell his excuses which included  "I was just having a bad day so I did what I always do, I beat up a little girl".  All of these things I heard when I was called into the principals office when I was called down to see what could be done to "Make everyone get along". The principal tried everything he could to make sure the boy could make up some excuse for his attack. He was given a week's detention and than afterwards he attacked another little girl, this time in kindergarten. The boy has now grown into a man that is serving time for aggravated sexual assault . Stories like these are not uncommon, and attacks like these at that school in particular were not uncommon. It wasn't until high school that a wonderful principal finally stopped the harassment immediately and altogether that I realized some little petty coward's bullying is their fault and their's alone, and they are wrong and horrible for it. Children need to be treated the way adults would by police if they assaulted someone, and no leniency shown because some children may be "really nice kids" to certain sucker teachers.