Recess Mess

The Helping Project is a pledge our family took to help everyone we see that needs it for a year… and to write about what happens.

At my school we have a sandbox. It is the common rectangular type, with somewhat tall wooden walls and scarce sand toys, if any. Anyway, it was recess and I was playing a tag game with some of my friends. One of them was sitting on one of the sandbox’s walls when another player sprinted over and pushed the kid who was sitting down, into the sandbox! I stepped back, astonished, but the pusher and everyone else seemed to think it was funny. “Hah!” The bully (the one who had pushed the other player) jeered. “You deserved it! And besides, you're it!”

I was horrified. “Are you okay?” I asked. The now very shaken player stood up and nodded his head. I raced off to tell an adult.

— — — — —

I walked along the blacktop, explaining what had just happened to our substitute principal. (Who had happened to be the closest adult on “recess patrol.”) When we got to the “site of the crime” my substitute principal made sure everything was okay, then started looking for the bully.

A little while later we were back to playing our original game. “Why did you tell?” Another player asked disapprovingly. I figured that she didn’t want her perfect laugh moment ruined, keeping in mind that I was the only player who seemed to show sympathy! I replied calmly - “Because I knew it wasn’t right.”

I am proud of what I did, despite the fact that it was a small deed. Standing up for myself (and someone else) was definitely a large part of why this counts.

Humans helped total: 12