3:30

In the beginning of the year another student at the middle school told Jack that school got out at 3:30.  Jack let him know that it actually got out at 2:30.  For some reason this student has decided to make it a point to track Jack down in the halls everyday and tell him school gets out at 3:30.  The student knows he can get a rise out of Jack and so he makes certain that he does it.  Jack finds this quite irritating and he is tired of it. I guess yesterday Jack asked him what his name was and the student told Jack he was a butt and that upset Jack even further.  What was my joy this morning when Jack was practically in tears because he doesn't want to go back to school. He doesn't want to deal with this anymore.  I realize that "school gets out at 3:30" is a dumb thing and why would Jack even chose to be upset over it?  Well, for an autistic boy who see's things very much in black and white, the rules are the rules, it makes no sense to say school gets out at 3:30 when in reality it gets out at 2:30.  Does the young man mean harm to Jack by saying this to him everyday?  I don't know that he does but I also don't think he realizes that what he is doing would fall under the definition of bullying.  Bullying! Am I seriously saying this is bullying?  Yes I am.  The fact that the boy seeks him out daily to say this to him to intentionally get a rise out of him is a form of bullying.  I now have a boy who used to be up and excited to go to school in the morning suddenly not wanting to get out of bed, not wanting to get ready and not wanting to go to school at all.  As a parent this is highly frustrating.  I have coached Jack on ignoring it, laughing it off or whatever and had hoped that this would stop the problem.  It has not. The school won't do anything about it because Jack doesn't know who the boy is and can't get his name.  So what do we do?  What do I tell Jack to do?  I have no idea at this point.  All I could do this morning was pray that Jack would go to school and prayed that this student would leave him alone.  I expressed to the Lord that I was powerless to make this situation stop but I knew that he could do all things.  Jack got on the bus, almost missed it but managed to get on the bus this morning.  I didn't get any calls from the school and he made it through the day just fine.  When I got home I asked him about the day and asked about the boy specifically.  He told me he didn't see him today and that members of his class were with him to protect him in the halls.  Surely this could be just a coincidence, we got lucky today.  I don't know that I will chalk it up to chance.  I prayed, Natalie prayed, we prayed as a family for Jack.  I believe the Lord provided a little tender mercy today, a bit of a miracle if you will.  Tomorrow morning should be much easier.  I pray that the Lord will continue to bless Jack like he did today.  I am grateful for the hand of the Lord in our lives even in the seemingly small things that one would think are insignificant like school getting out at 3:30.