Relentless Defender

My plan was to write a story about Kellisa's 14th surgery, but events at Kellisa's school will bump that entry back a day or two. Kellisa is in an ESE classroom and it can be "challenging" with many different types of children and their individual needs. The school year started a few weeks ago and Kellisa's nurse reported that one of her classmates likes to pull hair. I've been worried that this kid would pull Kellisa's hair and hurt her. I know the classroom has 4-5 adults for less than 10 kids and it's the same teacher as last year who I completely trust, so my worries were stashed in the back of my mind as the first week passed.

The boy finally got around to pulling Kellisa's hair today and Kellisa impressively defended herself. I guess Kellisa started swinging her arms with wild abandon. The boy struggles to walk, so he had trouble getting away from Kellisa and Kellisa has freakishly long arms, so I can only imagine the sight of this now terrified boy trying to get away from the relentless defender.

By all accounts, I don't think I have to worry about Kellisa's hair getting pulled for the rest of this school year. I'm thinking all the sibling battles with Egypt in the living room and backseat of our cars has trained Kellisa for this occasion.

I'll go to bed very proud and filled with less worries tonight.

*** Flashback ***

It was Kellisa's first day of 1st grade back in August 2005 and a cute little boy who had been friends with Kellisa for several years already was getting in her face. I think he was just excited to see Kellisa after spending the summer apart. Kellisa was usually very affectionate with her friends, especially the boys, but for some reason, she wasn't feeling the love and pushed him away. He wasn't satisfied with her greeting and came back in close to Kellisa's face and she gave him another push. When he immediately returned, she punched him in the face and split his lip. 

Because there was blood, the school was forced to write it up as an incident and notify both parents. Fortunately, we knew the other family and they were OK with everything. Both kids apologized to each other and moved on to continue their friendship for many years after this isolated incident. I'm not sure if he ever got so close to Kellisa's face again. 

I remember being thankful Kellisa didn't go to a school where they would have called the police to have her arrested for assault. I was also very proud of my wheelchair bound daughter for defending her space.