How To Not Life

Violence is Never an Answer But...

This story also takes place in 1st grade.

So I went to a private Christian School which meant about 75% of families had the father working as the owner of some company while the mom stayed at home. This means most kids had rides home after school. However, that was not the case. Both my parents worked almost nine to tweve hours a day. They worked so hard ot be able to send me to this school. They hoped I would be protected from the outside world (bullying) and be able to grow my faith in God. Now because of my parents dedication to their work I was at school all day. I would get there at seven in the morning and I could not leave till after six in the evening. 

A quick side note. So our school had a system for pick-ups and drop-offs for the afternoon and morning. There were certain sections of campus where people in certain grades would get dropped off or picked up. This was our carpool system. Now something unique about our carpool system is at each location three people would be there to greet the students or say goodbye. These adults were paid to greet us and open the door and then get our stuff for us. They had to learn all our names and ask about our day. 

These people were there all day from the first student (usually me) till the last one left (usually me). These adults also ended up being in charge of After School Care.

After School Care was basically for students who could nto get rides home (we did not have a bus system till I was in high school and that was only for people who lived in Acworth a city about thirty minutes away). Now After School Care had about 20 students all who ranged from two to fifteen years old. Therefore, it was an interesting group of kids. Basically, the caretakers just released us to the playground to do whatever we wanted. Normally the older kids would be together and never talk to the younger kids. The only we would intermingle was to play Kickball together. (One of my proudest moments to this day is when I kicked the ball super far against the older kid team and got a home run. Honestly, I still pretty epic about that to this day.)

Now, one day I was on the playgound play with a new toy I won in first class. Every week we would have a completition on who could find the Bible verse the quickest. We did 5 Bible verses a day (it was suppose to help us memorize the Bible and order of books). The student who had the most points at the end of the week won. This week I had won and I was so happy. I got to pick a prize out of the treasure chest and I pick a yo-yo. I loved that yo-yo. I ended up playing with it all day. However, about an hour into After School Care one of the older kids (he was like thirteen) tried to take from me. I said no and kept playing with it. (Finally, learned how to say no.)

However,  he did not like my answer. So an hour later he ended up snatching the yo-yo from my hand and starting playing with it. I kindly asked him to give it back. He laughed at my face and said no. Well I did not like this. So i did what any girl would do and punched him in the stomach. He doubled over, and I took my yo-yo back. The guy then went crying to the caretakers and we had to explain what happened. We both go placed into isolation and I began to cry thinking about how much trouble I would be in. 

Now the rest of the story I have heard countless times from my dad. My dad came to pick me up in the evening. Now at this point all the caretakers know all parents by face and name. So when he came ot pick me up the head caretaker went out to meet him. That is when my dad knew something was up. The rest of the story goes like this.

The caretaker greeted my father and said, "I need you to come in. Something happened and we need to talk to you."

Well now my father was scared. Did something happen to me? Or did I do something? The caretaker continued, "Now, officially I cannot condone Katie's actions but unofficially let me just tell you, you have raised an amazing daughter. Don't be too hard on her."

My dad was confused at this point. As he was walking to the room where I was the janitor came and stopped my dad, "I just want to tell you I saw the whole thing. You daughter did nothing wrong. Be proud of her for standing up for herself."

My dad just nodded and after being stopped several times with teachers and caretakers all saying the same thing. My father finally got to my room where I was drinking a juice pouch having finally stopped crying. The head caretaker finally explained the whole story ending with, "Now Violence is never the answer ,and your daughter should never do this again, but you go girl for standing up for yourself. You aren't any trouble. Keep up the good work." She then high fived me and left me to my dad. My dad just shook his head and laughed. I went home where we told the story to my mom who just died laughing.

Anyway, thats the story how I punched somewhat at a Private Christian School and got praised for it.