And my heart breaks.

Today when I went to sign the boy out from camp the girl at the table says Matt needs to speak to you. At some point in this the boy has latched to my back (unusual). I make eye contact with someone who appears to be Matt.

They were worried, I'm told. The boy was beating his head on the walls and such. That was all morning. They were afraid he'd hurt himself. In the afternoon it changed to randomly pushing other kids. He thinks I should know. The boy says they were teasing him. We ask if he told the camp counsellor for his group. Apparently not.

Oh god, I think, not again. We haven't had behavioral issues in a long time.

On the walk to the car we talk. At one point he says it started yesterday. He made a joke but they won't let it end. I'm thinking he was mean. He claims to have forgotten it. I tell him flat out that I don't believe he's forgotten, I think he just doesn't want to tell me.

And out it comes. Seems he got frustrated while dressing after swimming (wet body, twisted underwear) his exclamation of frustration was "I need help". Apparently at least one of the other boys has latched onto this. All day he teased that my boy needs help putting on his underwear. At some point he threatened to tell everyone that my boy needs help putting on his underwear.

My little boy was beating himself up because he couldn't take it back but he hated himself for saying it. Of course you can only hate yourself so long before you start lashing out at the others.

Needless to say, I didn't punish him. We talked about how to handle things. We talked about speaking up for himself, walking away and getting help. I told him to tell me if the counsellor doesn't help because I will make them help. I told him he's God's masterpiece and he shouldn't try to break himself. I gave lots of kisses and hugs.

Tomorrow I need to chat with some camp workers. In their defense they are all college students. I especially need to speak with his group's counsellor. This needs to end here. Damn kids today are too nasty to each other. The gentle souls just get chewed up raw.