"I'm Being Harrassed!"

I had been teaching our first and second graders about ways to handle bullying, bothering, and teasing. I'd taught some of the classes about the difference in bullying and harassment, on an age-appropriate level, of course. Bullying has to have a fear factor involved, but harassment can be any kind of behavior that continues after you've let the person know you don't like it and want them to stop. Harassment CAN be bullying, but it can also just be a wide range of annoying behaviors.

Well, one day four first grade girls walked into my room while a parent volunteer was talking with me. A beautiful little freckle-faced, pony-tailed girl said in a matter-of-fact voice, "Miss Mimi, I'm being harassed." I looked at the parent volunteer, and her eyes were as big and round as saucers. Then the child went on to tell me that some boys wouldn't stop chasing her on the playground even after she'd asked them to stop. As it turns out, she'd already gotten help from her teacher, so the problem had been solved. But the mom's expression was hilarious! I asked another little girl, this one a dark-haired beauty, to tell the volunteer what harassment was. She very proudly and eagerly said, "It's when somebody's bothering you and you tell them to stop and they keep doing it. And if you can't get them to stop after 3 tries, you go tell your teacher." And she flashed a big old smile because she knew her stuff!

I was so proud of these girls, because they had only had that lesson one time, a week previously, and the fact that they had learned it and were using it to stay happy and safe at school made me flash a big old smile of my own!