just when you thought you were safe

I belong to an email list, a pretty active community of moms. This is a place I have felt safe for the last five years to be able to post pretty much anything going on for me. Today, that safety was violated.

Today my son's principal called to say that he was sent to the office for inappropriately touching another student. She then informed me that it was the third time, and that next time he would be sent home.

First off, I'm pissed that I wasn't told the first two times. That is not ok with me. There will be talks with the principal for sure... when I'm not so angry.

My first instinct was to post to my list to see what I should do. I've gotten some solid advice from these women. I forgot that my sister in law (not the one I am close to) is on the list. She was molested as a young girl and decided to write this post (onlist!) about how she felt like my son was an "abusive, bullying relative", which is completely untrue.

I feel embarrassed, ashamed and angry. If she had sent that to me personally, I could have responded privately. Now I feel like my son has been labeled a bad person to about 100 people and I have been labeled as someone who permits bad behavior. Which is (AGAIN) untrue!

I sent a short reply to the list about it being inappropriate venue for her post. I cannot possibly respond in any rational way. I sent something to the list about how I was feeling, kept it to two sentences. I will respond to her privately in detail when I can do so without being SO DAMN ANGRY.