3rd Grade Drama

Background........Cade is being teased and tripped by a couple other boys for another class during recess soccer games. Wierd because he's actually a smart popular kid, who is class representative and is NOT an aggresive person. But, he tends to react and overreact to being teased, always has. He has trouble just letting things go. So yesterday one of these boys from across the lunchroom gives the universal"crybaby sign"(ya know, rub your fists in your eyes and then pointed to him) So he gets pissed. He tells the lunch teacher, nothing really happens of course. He gets more pissed, but dosnt' want to tell again, because, really, who wans to be a tattletale. So he fumes all afternoon inside, and decided to go find the kid at the tetherball court. Which he does, walks up, says "Bring it" and lands a solid punch square on the side of the kids face. (Um, honey, lets cut down on our ultimate fighting watching, mm'kay?) Well, thats a cute story except the kid goes down to the ground ( Cade was surprised by how wimpy the "bully" was...heheh 'aint it always like that) crying, but heres the kicker..the kid is hearing impaired and has a cochlear implant!!!! So now I'm hoping to not get slapped with a $2,000 bill to fix it or somthing. So far it seems like it'll be OK. So to my crazy mix of embarassment/pride/understanding...My CHILD is SUSPENDED from SCHOOL for 2 days. Not neessarily for punching, but for it being pre-meditated and "taking the law into his own hands". So I can understand that. Part of me feels very guilty because he'd been telling me all this time that a couple kids were kind of giving him trouble, to which my response had been "If you give them a reaction they will continue to bother you" or "did you tell the teacher" Neither of which were very helpful. So this is what it came to. Cade is fine accepting the consequences, he's grounded from all electronics including TV and will be putting 2 full days of housework for me while he's home. But he's fine with that. Hopefully this will put an end to the trouble he's been having. Marks the proud papa of course (you men are SICK) But I understand theres a pcking order and he's doing what it takes to survive and thrive. I'm proud of him for sticking up for himself, even if he made a bad choice on timing. We'll see how it all plays out. SIGHHHHHH.