Char and I had just gotten done in the pool when TK stuck his head in to tell us the school principal’s secretary was on the phone. Not even eleven o’clock, not two weeks into the school year, and Kevin had been sent to the principal’s office. One or both of his parents was expected to come pick him up; he was dismissed for the rest of the day.

This pissed me off for a couple of reasons. Sending a kid home for whatever offense isn’t punishment, it’s damn near reward. He’s 10; he doesn’t care if he can’t make up missed work from the rest of the day. And if it wasn’t a suspendable offense, handle it in the office and send a note home. Char handled the phone call; had it been me I may have said something to make everything worse, so we were headed for the school like it or not.

Kevin was sitting in a chair just outside the principal’s office and as soon as we got there we were all ushered into her office, where she looked at Kevin and told him he could tell us what he’d done.

I punched a seventh grader in the nuts.

I admit up front that my first thought was not why? but Well, that was probably as high as you could reach.

Char had the presence of mind to ask him why. Well, we were waiting for choir to start and he was talking to Rachel and I wanted to ask her something and when I walked over there I heard him say he wanted to touch her boob so I punched him in the nuts. A perfectly rational explanation coming from a ten year old. I didn’t know how to respond to that without sounding amused and without becoming overly verbose, and just looked at the principal. She was gritting her teeth to keep from laughing.

Char was cool as a cucumber and asked him why he didn’t just let Rachel handle it. Because it’s my job to punch boys who bother her when Alex isn’t there to do it. Sure, he admitted, Rachel is capable of punching boys all on her own, but she’d be all nice about it and not go for the groin.

It seems the school has a zero tolerance policy on fighting; normally Kevin would have been suspended for the remainder of the week, but sending him home to face his father’s (supposed) wrath was deemed sufficient. And the kid who wanted to get up close and personal with my daughter? He’s out until next week, and the principal seemed sure that his weekend would not be a comfortable one based on his father’s reaction to the news his son was asking random girls if he could grope them.

I can hardly fault him for wanting to protect his sister, but because he didn't witness any actual groping and reacted to what amounted to a stupid request, he didn't get to sit on his ass all afternoon. He spent it as TK's little bitch, doing anything TK said, which included dusting every little nook and cranny in the offices and vacuuming everything that had carpeting. But when school let out, we let up, and he was done for the day.

No one is telling him to not protect his sister, or anyone else. Just be a bit smarter about it. And damn, we have clean offices now.