Turning the Other Cheek

My son got detention after school today. I went into shock, he is graduating middle school in about a month and he has had a spotless record. The idea of him being in detention was completely foreign to me since he knew that above all, his behavior was most important to me. After the initial wave of anger, I forced myself to calm down enough to listen to what he had to say when he got out.

Since he is rather popular at school, I had kids coming up to me trying to explain that Jason did no wrong while I was waiting. Then there were the young second graders who were shocked that their ASC President was in detention. I told them he was in big, big trouble.

It seems that some of his classmates were mean to a certain unnamed young lady (this girl is hugely unpopular) because they thought she was taking something that should have been his. She went to the proper authorities in tears and accused him of instigating the mean behavior which he denied. I am taking him at his word, I do not have any reason to believe otherwise. Nevertheless, he was awarded detention because she was in tears and something must have caused it. Since she fingered him, there must be some smoke to the fire.

I was going to cause a commotion, he told me to let it go. I cannot count the number of times I have held my tongue just because he asked me to. He said he was being the bigger person and that her life was bad enough already. While I am very proud of his ability to turn the other cheek, part of me wants to tell him to just go ahead and smack her. That would probably not be a good idea. This was specially reinforced after I learned that he did not disclose information that would have landed her in more than just detention. However, I did tell him that if it happened again, he had to learn to stand up for himself.

I guess I have to give some merit to the school for instilling in him good Catholic values, that is the main reason after all why we sent him there. I am very proud of him.