Cars is having a problem with a girl in his class. She pinches him frequently when he does not do what she wants. He has been telling me about it for weeks and I haven't done anything other than coach him how to tell her to stop and then to tell the teacher if she does not stop.

He told me the other day that she pinched him and I asked if he told the teacher but he said no because he did not want to "tattle" on her. Apparently there is a lot of tattling going on in class and the teacher has said that she did not want to hear any more tattling.

I explained to him that if someone was hurting him then telling the teacher or other adult is not tattling. He was skeptical so I finally emailed the teacher on Friday after school to tell her what was going on and that he was hestitant to let her know because of the "tattling" thing.

Now, I must interject here that this little girl has had some behavioural problems and I know that the vice-principal has been working with her on improving her behaviour.

Anyway, today the teacher spoke to Cars to tell him that he needs to tell her so she can help him. She also told this girl to stop and informated the VP. Then, during lunch recess, she pinched him again. I am very proud of him because he told the teacher right away.

I am tired of this girl pinching him. Things have increased a bit too since they were moved to the same table a couple of weeks ago. I feel badly that I did not contact the teacher sooner but do I feel strongly that my kids need to try to handle things like this themselves first before I get involved. I did not know about the whole tattling thing though until Friday when I finally was able to get it out of Cars that he was concerned about being a tattler.

Hopefully the pinching will stop now. And hopefully this girl will not be in his class next year to lessen her opportunity to pinch him.