Originally posted on The Chicago Moms
One of our girls came home tonight with a dark red mark on her wrist. A boy in
her third grade class grabbed her wrist in P.E. and twisted it so hard he left a
mark. The P.E. teacher handled the situation by reprimanding the boy. It was all
handled properly.
The problem is that this little boy has known anger issues. He will tell you
he has anger issues. His teacher said he has anger issues. Did I mention he is
in third grade? He is nine years old and already has anger issues.
When I was in the room for the winter party, he sat at his desk glaring at
everyone having fun. No matter what I tried he didn’t leave his desk. He put his
head in his hands when he wanted to be left alone.
I don’t know anything about his life. I don’t know about his parents. I don’t
know if he has siblings or a pet. I don’t know is he has interests. All I know
is he scares me.
I’ve seen this story before. Young boy with anger issues grows up to be
troubled teenage boy with a weapon. He walks into a crowded place and opens
fire. It’s a story we’ve seen over and over again.
He scares me because there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be in the same Jr.
high school and high school as our girls. Unless his family moves, our daughters
will go through school with him. I told them they need to be polite to him, but
keep their distance.
They tell me he doesn’t have any friends. I’m not surprised. Who wants to be
friends with a child who is always angry? Who is always looking to hurt someone?
What parent wants their child to be friends with a boy who hurts other kids? Who
wants him in their child’s class?
I want to tell our girls to try to be friends with him. I want to tell our
girls that he might not be angry if he had someone to play with at recess, but I
don’t believe that. I do believe that there are a lot of people, in the school
at least, aware of his problem who are trying to help him. I do believe that he
will grow up to be an angry adult who will continue to act out in completely
inappropriate ways.
All I can do is watch and try to keep our girls away from him. In theory we
live in a neighborhood where this shouldn’t be a concern. Of course, that’s what
people thought about the Columbine shooters too right? I just hope we’ve learned
enough from all the mass shootings that someone will figure out something to
help this little boy before it’s too late. He’s only in third grade and already
his future looks dim.