Every morning I take DS5 to school on the (ordinary) bus. There's only one choice of bus. There's a group of boys from the local high school who take the same bus for part of the way. I'd say they're 11 or 12. They've started mocking DS. It started one day when he was doing sums on the bus and talking about them - of course, he was doing sums with fractions and negative numbers, and I now remember having overheard one of this group having failed to do a simple multiplication (6 x 7 or thereabouts) the other day, so I suppose that was a red flag :-( They starting talking among themselves in an obviously to-be-overheard way: "Gifted chiiiiild. Stephen Hawking before his terrible accident" [I wanted to say "He didn't have an accident! He has motor neurone disease!" but said nothing.] I hoped it was a one-off, and took a mental note to try to make sure DS wasn't talking about maths when they were around, but today he was just talking ("why can grass survive snow? Is it because it has horizontal stalks?") and they were repeating his phrases ("horizooontal staaaalks"). It doesn't help that DS has an English accent and we're in Scotland.
From long experience in my own childhood :-( I suspect that there's nothing to be done about this - e.g., that saying anything to them or to their school, or sitting away from our usual place on the bus, would only make matters worse - but I'd welcome advice on what to say to DS. He doesn't fully grok what's going on, but he does notice. I told him (after they'd got off) that they were just being silly and trying to annoy us, and that I thought we should ignore them; and after the first time it happened, when he was doing sums, I told him that I thought they thought he was unusually young to be doing that kind of sum. I don't think he got why that would make them tease us, at all, though; if you were in this situation, would you try to explain, e.g. help him understand why he in particular is a good target? I think I'm inclined not to; it's not as though he ever has to encounter this group without me, since they're at a different school. I have no reason to think anything similar is happening at his own school. But I do feel rather fatalistic about it, as though it was only a matter of time before something like this happened and as though it's bound to happen lots more. I'd like to be wrong :-(
Anyone tackled this kind of situation? What did you do/say?
Last edited by ColinsMum; 02/02/09 03:45 AM. Reason: More appropriate posting icon!
