There’s this girl, Wenxuan sitting behind Zann in the class. She would borrow Zann’s pencil everyday. I have known this since the start of the semester. Initially, I took it as a small issue. Just a lending and borrowing kind of thing between the girls. I even said yes to Zann when she brought her cartoon characters pencils to school.
However, this matter escalated into one big issue.
Zann came crying to me said she didn’t want to go to school anymore. Wenxuan, using her leader status in class, had threatened Zann to provide her pencil everyday. If not, she will tell the class teacher. I was very unhappy learning what had happened. This is something a 7 yo kid shouldn’t behave. The threatening part sound like bullying!
So I wrote in to Zann’s class teacher, had an hour conversation over the phone with her.
This morning, the class teacher updated me what had happened.
Dear Zann’s mummy,
As spoken, I’ve investigated the matter and establish eye witnesses. The facts that I could establish with all the children were:
1) Wen Xuan did borrow pencils from Zann.
(As classmates saw Wenxuan borrowing but no one heard Wen Xuan threatening Zann or spoiling the pencils, I reinforced the message that ‘leaders’ must be able to serve others through caring acts and encouraging others. Otherwise they will not be chosen/suitable.)
Follow-up action:
1) Called Wenxuan’s mum to inform her about the incident.
2) Did a role play between Wen Xuan and Zann to equip Zann with the platform to say ‘No’ when encountered with such a situation.
3) Did a closure wih Wen Xuan saying sorry to Zann. A written note of apology is attached to Zann’s Handbook.
4) Class is reminded to only ‘borrow’ stationery from Mdm Wee.
5) 5 new pencils are put in Zann’ bag.
An hour later, the class teacher informed me again that Zann lent her pencil to one boy during the Mother Tongue lesson.
There’s no ending to this, even when I had given my stern warning to Zann.
