Bullied

As the only daughter of the richest family in their city, Rea is given the best education. Her parents enrolled her to St. Aquinas School when she was 5 years old as a pre-schooler. During that time, she is already a child with extraordinary physical condition.

Most of her classmates refuse to play with her during their playtime at school. They say that she is not that good and because she is stout, she can’t run that fast. They don’t want to choose her as their teammate during their Physical Education class activities. No matter how much their teacher would reprimand them for doing this, they still stand by their decision.

Every day, Rea is bullied by her classmates. They call her names whenever they see her.

“Hey, look here comes the blob! Hahaha”

“No, she is an elephant! Hehehe”

Then they would all start to giggle. These incidents embarrass Rea.

“Why do keep on calling me names?”

She asked them as she confronted them.

“You are not pretty, but I never call you names.”

“You look like a monkey!”

Rea shouts.

Her classmate approaches her and pinches her on the arm. Rea cries from the pain she inflicted.

“Teacher… Teacher, it hurts.”

The teacher would then go near her and scrutinize the area pinched by her fellow pupil. Next, she turns her attention to the perpetrator and scolds her for hurting Rea.

This favouritism by her teachers caught the ire of the other children. Yet this is not her fault. They care for her because she shows that she loves them. Occasionally, Rea hugs them and kisses them on the cheeks whenever she feels like it.

One sunny morning, Rea is playing with the wooden toys inside the classroom. Her other classmates are also having a fun time with the other playthings. Suddenly, a hard object hit her on the side head. This caused her to cry loudly. The noise she created was so deafening that it disturbed the classes in the adjacent rooms.

The teacher rushed to her aid. A big lump appeared on her forehead because of the impact of the object.

“Stop crying, Rea. I will punish your classmate who did this to you.”

She assures her as she gently strokes her head.

“Who did this? Who did this!?”

Miss Lani screams at her pupils.

“You could’ve hurt her badly. Look at what you’ve done!”

She points at the bump.

“If no one would admit, I’ll bring all of you to the principal.”

Unexpectedly, a tall boy stands up. He raises his hand.

“I did it, Miss Ann . I threw the toy at her.”

“Why did you do that?”

“You’re always paying attention at her every whim. Most of your time is spent on her!”

The boy complained.

“So you’re telling me that you are jealous, that’s why you hurled this object at Rea?”

He bows his head and refuses to answer.

“Alright then, I’ll bring you the principal for further questioning while I’ll drop off Rea by the clinic.”

Miss Ann orders her assistant teacher to watch over the rest of the class as she goes out of the classroom.

“You’d better call Rea’s parents. If she goes home like this, surely they would be mad about what happened to their only daughter and they would blame our school for not looking after her.”

“I wouldn’t want them to feel that way otherwise they might pull out their sponsorships for the school.”

“Yes, Mam.”

The phone rings at the office of Rea’s mom.

“Hello, Mrs. Johnson. This Miss Ann, teacher of Rea.”

“This is her secretary Miss Ann. I’ll just put your call through to her landline.”

“Mrs. Johnson, your child’s teacher is on line 3.”

“Okay.”

She presses the number 3 button.

“Yes, Miss Ann. Is there anything wrong?”

“Mam, your daughter Rea was hurt during play time early this morning.”

“What?!”

“I’m sorry Mam. Do not worry; our clinic has administered first aid on your child’s wound.”

“I’ll go there right now! I need to see my daughter.”

She bangs the phone on its receiver and tells her secretary to call her driver.

Mrs. Johnson rushes to St. Aquinas School. She was fuming mad as she went down from her car.

“Mam, your daughter Rea is at the clinic.”

Miss Ann approaches her and guides her to the room.

“Rea, my baby! How are you?”

She hugs her daughter and strokes the lump on her head.

“I’m okay, mommy. It’s no longer hurting.”

Mrs. Johnson turns to Miss Ann.

“Who did this?”

“We have reprimanded him already, Mam. He is at the Principal’s Office right now.”

She stood up from where she is sitting and walk towards the office.

Rea’s mom knocks on the door. The principal stands up from her chair and opens the door.

“Good morning, Mrs. Johnson.”

She enters the room without acknowledging the greeting of the school head.

“So, is this the boy who hurled a toy at my daughter?”

“Yes, he is. He has admitted to his mistake. We have called his parents for a conference.”

Upon hearing this, the temper of Mrs. Johnson lowered. She now managed to smile.

“Thank you. Please tell them to teach their child good manners.”

“Okay, Mam.”

Satisfied with the action done by the school she leaves the school bringing her daughter along. She plans to let their family doctor take a look at her. She has to be sure that her daughter is alright.

“Mommy, mommy, I don’t want to go to school anymore.”

Rea repeatedly tells her mom.

“Why, baby?”

“They keep on bullying him. Look at this, now I have a big booboo on my head.”

She tells her mom.

“How long have they been doing this?”

“Very long mommy… very long.”

Rea puts her head on her mom’s shoulder.

After dropping by the clinic, she brought her daughter home. Then she calls her husband and narrates to him what transpired at the school of Rea. Her dad was mad. He tells her that he’s going to pull out Rea from St. Aquinas. He can’t risk that this would happen again.

“Let’s talk about this when I get home tonight. I think it would be better to have our daughter home schooled. It would be for her own good.”

“Okay, honey.”

Mrs. Johnson puts her phone down and prepares a snack for Rea. She understands why her husband is so intent on home schooling their child. She is their only daughter and he just wants to protect her from the bullies.