My son was bit in school yesterday

Yesterday  at dinner my son revealed that he was bit at school by another student.  You can see bite marks on his arm.  From what I gathered from both my son and daughter (they are in the same class) the two of them were playing with another female classmate when this boy came up (and I am not clear what exactly happened at this point) but he started playing with them and bit my son's arm.  The female classmate ran up and told the teacher and the boy (who is mentioned by my kids as frequently getting in trouble and not one of their favorite students) was placed in time out.  I did not get a note home from the teacher about it and from what the kids are saying, it sounds like it was handled.
Do I send a note in on Monday?
I do meet with the teacher for a conference at the end of the week and I was planning on addressing it with her then and asking that Luke and this boy be separate as much as possible.  I also know that there are two sides to every story and I would like to hear the teacher's insights as well.
 

 

Yeah Cooper was bitten once at daycare and they called me and told me. I would want to be notified about it - with a phone call or note. Did it break the skin? I think where Cooper goes there's a policy that if the skin is broken they have to call the parents.

I would want the teacher to notify me.

 

Daycare is different than public school, and notification is a bit different, especially since public school kids are usually old enough to report things at home themselves. I would probably call the teacher on Monday, and ask about the incident.  It could be that since the skin wasn't broken, they felt he would tell you.  Also, remember that when you call the teacher, she will probably say that yes, he was bitten, but they will not tell you anything beyond that.

 

I would expect to be notified.  One of my girls can be kind of clumsy, and I cannot even tell you how many times between kindi and first that I got a call starting with "Good morning Mrs. R, it's Ms. K at school.  Lily is okay, I just wanted to let you know that she tripped, bumped her head, etc."  So if another child bit her and broke skin, I would completely expect to be notified.  
 
Now that they are in second they are in a different school that is 2nd through 5th.  I might not expect it so much anymore, but then again, I would certainly hope a child that is 7-8 years old (or older) would no longer be biting.  I find it really strange that a kindergarten student would still be biting!

 

There should have been some kind of note sent home at least to let you know that it happened.  I'm sure the teacher reprimanded that kid, but still..you should have been notified.
 I think you should say something about it to the teacher

 

I would expect to be notified too. And I think a good way of handling it is doing what you said; discussing your concerns with this boy's behavior and how it is affecting your kid. I am sorry for the boy who is having trouble, but your kids shouldn't have to be hurt or afraid of him.

 

Did you wind up talking to the teacher?

 

I am meeting with her on Thursday.  I will keep you all posted and I thank you for your advice.  From what the kids are telling me, this child has bitten others in the class.  It sounds like there is an issue there, I am sure the teacher cannot get into it with me as to what is going on with the boy, but I will express my concerns and make sure if there is anything on my end that I need to address with my kids that I do so.  
And the way my husband is about things (especially when it comes to germs and injury & what not), I need to have this nipped in the bud, or he is going to that school and will probably go overreact and go nuclear.  
 
Forgot to add: I talked to my SIL who works as a 5th grade teacher and has also worked in day care for years (she works in day care facility when school is closed) and she said the same as Susan-she can see biting at age 2 or 3, it starts to seem unusual at 4 and really unusual at 5.

 

Hope your meeting goes well!!

Sounds like a kid who maybe has other issues going on...

 

Hope your meeting goes well today!

 

Thanks for the good wishes, the meeting did go very well.  One of the main concerns the teacher has with both of my kids (they are in the same class, the school only has one kindergarten class) is that they don't speak up for themselves and she is afraid them not speaking up for themselves is going to give other kids the impression it's okay to do anything to them.  It's something we will work on with the both of them.
Regarding the biting incident: she had NO idea it happened and was very upset to hear that it did. Because she would have addressed it and sent a note home to me about it that very day.  I told her the story I got from both kids-that another classmate must have told the lunch monitor who put the boy in time out-why it never got to her, I don't know. But I told the teacher, I don't know what happened prior to the bite-were the kids playing and were they playing dinosaurs or something and the boy took it too far, was there a dispute between the kids---I have no idea and my kids have not enlightened me on that one.  But I told her that this is exactly what she is talking about with my two-they have to speak up when things happen to them and they have to do right then and there.  Even if another classmate gets to an adult first.

 

I work in preschool (3s) and we have had one biting incident on 3 years…..but the 2s class has had a few.
 
It is absolutely unusual for a K kid to bite. The other occasions I have heard of that happening were with students that had special needs and may have communication disabilities, behavioral disorders, or are developmentally at the 2-3 year old level. If that is the case with the student on your DS class, then he really needs a 1 on 1 for the safety of the other students!! Biting is a pretty big concern because it can carry illness.
 
No matter the grade, I would expect to be notified if my child got bitten at school.
 
Hope you all can resolve it quickly and positively!

 

I'm glad you talked to the teacher about it! I hope it doesn't happen again.

 

My boys are in 2nd grade and one just started speaking up for himself after the teacher had to get involved and after we continuously role played with him.  The other will not for the life of him speak up for himself and he is a target to be teased for that reason.  It is a constant issue we battle.  If I knew in 2nd grade how bad it would be, I would have worked harder in the younger grades.  But with that being said, Im not sure what more I could do . It is their personality.

 

It figures that the incident happened in the lunch room, unfortunately, the lunchroom aides tend to not pass on discipline information to the teachers.  That is one reason our school eliminated parent helpers during lunch, and now has teachers rotate and most do lunch duty one day per week.  In second grade, Jonathan was being bullied--again mostly at lunch, and out of the view of his classroom teacher.  It took me a few weeks to get out of him what was happening.  I told him to tell the teacher, but if he wanted I would sit in with him.  So, we met with his teacher, and he started talking, and told her how he "could take it, but could only take so much".  The teachers response to him was that he should NEVER take it, and she had a general discussion with the entire class the next day.  The bullying stopped that day.  Partially because Jon wasn't going to let them get away with it anymore, but also, the teacher let them know that she would find out anything that happened, in her room and out!