Cyber bullying. Ugh.  Well-4 kids, and in this world, it had to come up eventually.  My initial feelings are mama bear:  I want to find this kid and let him have it.  I also want to tell his mother that she needs to fucking parent and pay attention to what her kid is doing.   What have I done so far?  (besides immediately eat 2 chocolate chip cookies).  I asked A questions, and I was calm about it.  I said, oh he sounds like a jerk.  We checked his instagram account, but it was private.  I looked to see if the family is in the directory, but for better or worse, they're unlisted, and I don't know them.  I emailed the teacher to tell her-and we're going from there.  I will not fixate or freak out or get angry or cuckoo.  I'm going to be calm and act like we're handling it.  Done.  Boom.

Day 2.  No word back from the principal who the teacher referred this to.  I also haven't heard back from her on a separate email where I asked to have him moved so he's not sitting next to this kid.  However, despite my telling the older kids to not do anything, B started a fictitious instagram account to follow this kid and then saw the pic (which was mean but not awful) and reported it to be taken down.  E went beyond that and reported the kid for harassment.  I have to hand it to them:  they give A a hard time a LOT, but if anyone else messes with him-look out-they are ON IT.  We then had some great, funny conversations about bullying, teasing back and some seriously OTT come backs over dinner with the 6 of us and my parents (who relayed their own stories of being teased and bullied and even beaten up in my dad's case).  I think the whole thing ended up being positive and sort of matter of fact.