Disciplinary Action/Disciplinary Office/First Quarter/Mean girls/Coralee

Well, despite what your job is supposed to entail, you actually want nothing more than to make a child feel loved and comforted. Right now, that means you can't stand to see a little kid like Coralee crying and it makes you want to hug and comfort her before anything else. You can think of the punishment implications later... and maybe try to soften the experience for her when it comes to actually administering the punishment.

"Alright, let's find out what happened here. I'll take Coralee first. Victoria can wait here in the waiting area until I'm ready." You say, being careful to avoid hinting at any kind of "punishment procedures" both for the sake of not upsetting Coralee and also avoiding potential future trouble with Victoria when it's her turn.

"Alright, come on Coralee." You say as you place a hand on her back and guide her into your office. By now, her crying has died down to sniffles, but it's still the vision of a crying and sobbing child as you bring her into your office and close the door behind you.

As soon as you alone in the room, you can sense Coralee's tension has risen. "It's alright," you coax her. "How about we go sit down over here on the couch and you can tell me all about what happened?" You say as you guide her to the couch that's on one side of your office.

"Mmm..." The 9 year old 4th grader agrees and allows you to guide her.

"Here, how about you sit on my lap?" You coax as you sit down on the couch in a lazing position that takes up about half the couch. You physically pull Coralee into your lap as you are sitting, giving her little actual choice, and keep an arm around her. She looks uncertain. Of course, you are a total stranger to her. However, she does nothing to resist and just sits uneasily in your lap.

"Now, would you like to tell me what happened? Miss Curtis says you shoved Victoria. Is that really what happened?" You ask her.

"Yeah." Coralee responds.

"Why did you shove her?" You ask.

"Because..." Coralee sniffles. "Because she was saying mean things to Lisa."

"Like what?" You ask.

(WIP: Need a to take some distance and change my mind-set to envision the bullying scenario.)