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History Rachel is celebrating her ninth birthday soon. She gets a student list from her teacher so that Rachel and her mom can make our birthday invitations for the whole class. While she is looking at the list on her way home, she notices that Jason’s name is on the list. Rachel doesn’t like Jason because his hair is longer than hers so she decides to mark out his name before she gets home.
That evening as Rachel and her mom are filling out the invitations, her mom notices that one of the names has been marked out. Upon questioning Rachel, she is told that Jason transferred to a different school a week ago so he didn’t need to be invited to the party. They finish the invitations and the next day Rachel hands out all of the invitations.
Since her birthday party is two weeks away, all of the other children are excited and talk about the upcoming party. Jason hears about the party and wonders why he didn’t get an invitation when the rest of his class did. Jason asks Rachel if she had forgotten his invitation by mistake. Rachel tells him he isn’t invited, but doesn’t give a reason why.
Everyone finds out that Rachel didn’t invite Jason to her party. They are afraid that they won’t be able to come if she finds out they are talking with Jason. So everyone avoids Jason, except for Andy. Andy likes Jason so doesn’t care if he goes to Rachel’s party or not. This brings some comfort to Jason.
Rachel finds that Andy is talking to Jason so she tells one of her friends that Andy had stolen her lunch money. Rachel’s friend tells other children. Before long, no one will talk to Andy either. Bigger children start teasing and picking on Andy because they believe he stole Rachel’s lunch money.
Problem Rachel is being a bully. She isolated Jason by not giving him an invitation when she included everyone from her class. She used manipulation and deception with her mother to get Jason excluded. Rachel started a rumor about Andy and caused his isolation. She chose to dislike someone because of a physical characteristic, and because of association.
Rachel’s Discovery Andy gets in a fight with one of the older boys that believed Andy had stolen money from Rachel. When the two boys get sent to the principal’s office, the older boy tells the principal that Rachel said Andy had stolen her lunch money. Andy denies the accusation and the principal calls in Rachel.
Rachel admits she said that Andy had stolen her lunch money. She says that why she did it was because Andy was playing with Jason and she didn’t like Jason. All children involved get their parents called, and three days suspension. Upon the principal talking to each parent, Rachel’s mom discovers her deception and manipulation concerning Jason and Andy.
Rachel’s mom takes her home and sits down with Rachel to talk. Finally, Rachel admits that she didn’t like Jason because of his hair, and didn’t like Andy because he liked Jason. She admits that since she didn’t like Jason, she didn’t want anyone else to like him either.
Conclusion Rachel’s mom gets a therapist for herself and Rachel. The therapist discovers that her actions were learned behaviors from staying the summer at her cousin’s house. Rachel learns appropriate ways to show her aggression. She learns that it isn’t acceptable to not like someone because of how they look. Rachel makes improvements on each visit. She understands that her actions were harmful and unkind.
A few months later, Rachel approaches Andy and Jason in school. She apologizes for her behavior. She explains to the boys how and why her behavior wasn’t appropriate.
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Bully Solutions
