Got a call from the school saying my son punched a girl in his class. I was mad and ready to ground him when he got home when it occurred to me that I should ask why he hit her. The principal told me that the little girl pushed him and took his lunch money and continued to take her folder and smack him with it when he got fed up and punched her in the shoulder. Now, if they knew that the little girl had done all this and was continuing to do it, they should have intervened. They didn't so my son defended himself. Not in trouble.

When I told the principal that it seemed justified, she told me that I shouldn't make it seem okay to hit little girls. I let her know that my children know that it's not okay to hit anybody. But that it's also not okay to stand there and just be hit either. It's totally okay to defend yourself against anybody and everybody that is attacking you.