Lil Lookout's version of justice

[lookout123]

Yesterday I received a handwritten letter from Lil Lookout's teacher. He's in a summer school program run by someone I know from soccer. Kids aged 6-10 years are all together. He was nervous when handing it to me as it was in a sealed envelope with Mr Lookout, in very formal writing across the top. LL hasn't really be in any trouble there, but as usual he has proven to be a bit energetic for the teacher's liking. As his dad for the last seven years, I can fully appreciate that.

Anyway, I read the letter and actually had a tear in my eye afterwards. Apparently a new student had entered the program. This student is autistic, to what degree I don't know, but enough so that an additional staff member had been assigned to the class to smooth things along. Lil Lookout apparently rendered that staff member unnecessary and they released her from the class. The letter went into great detail about what LL did during Monday and Tuesday this week. He, for lack of a better word, adopted this child and never left his side. He showed him around, helped him with the rules, took him to lunch, had the new child "help" him with his classwork, and acted as a barrier when another older boy made a couple of comments about the child's condition. He even picked the kid and made him the goalie for their soccer game at free time. That may not sound like much, but if you can imagine LL's competitive nature on the soccer field that is HUGE. The letter went on to praise LL's caring for the boy in incredible detail. I literally had tears in my eyes because while I know LL is sensitive and caring, sometimes it is easier to see his less positive attributes.

When I talked to LL about the situation and what he was doing he was a bit embarrassed at the praise and really quite confused about all the attention. As he put it, "XXX's brain doesn't work quite like ours does so I helped him". It's as simple as that. LL is quite the little manipulator, but in this case he made his choice not based on what he would get, but just because he thought it was the right thing. I couldn't be more proud.

Anyway, about an hour ago I was sitting at my desk when in walked the director of the school program. This is a guy I rarely see outside of soccer and never in my office, so I knew something was up. He got a cold drink and sat down. He went on to tell me that Lil Lookout is not in any trouble but I have to have a talk with him when I get home. LL was sent home about an hour early today (Mrs L mentioned she picked him up early but didn't say why) because of a playground incident. Apparently LL had continued his role with the autistic child with no changes between them, but one of the older boys decided today was a good day to pick on the "weird" kid. The teacher says there were a couple verbal exchanges throughout the day. The older kid would make fun of the autistic kid and LL would step in play the protector. The teacher just moved them all along and nothing much came of it until free time on the playground. They were, predictably, playing soccer and the older kid kept making comments about the autistic kid and LL kept telling him to knock it off. The teacher would tell them to play and be nice. Then the bigger kid knocked the autistic kid down in what all witnesses described as an unnecessary foul. He cried and LL got mad. The teacher took the autistic kid to sit with her on the sidelines and LL quit talking. He stepped up to the ball for the free kick and crushed it with only one small problem. The bully was several feet away from the expected path of the ball for a normal free kick. The bully went home with a broken nose. The teacher saw the whole thing and although she says LL just kicked the ball and missed the goal - and all the kids agreed - the director and I both know that LL more than likely intentionally hit the kid. The director asked LL about it and all he would say is that he kicked the ball and the other player blocked it with his face. While it isn't a lie, I doubt it is the whole truth.

I'm torn on this. I will absolutely go home and talk to Lil Lookout, but in my heart of hearts I don't really feel the need to do much more than remind him there are better ways to deal with things. LL doesn't get by with much as I'm pretty strict but we have only a couple of hard and fast, penalty of death rules in my house: (beyond the basic safety and authority rules)
1) Take care of those around you who you are in a position to help
2) It is never wrong to do the right thing even when it costs you something. Know the consequences but live by your belief.
3) Never ever lie. (the punishment for lying is always double what the punishment for the infraction being lied about would have been)

That is pretty much it. So, with that in mind I have a hard time doing much more than just talking to him about his methods. I seriously doubt he meant to break a kid's nose. He has kicked literally thousands of soccer balls and hundreds of kids who have walked away uninjured so even intentionally hitting a kid with a ball wouldn't carry an expectation of serious injury.

My devil's advocate, a.k.a. my sister the teacher has another view though. She feels I should lecture LL on the importance of turning these matters over to the authorities for them to deal with. Her point is that LL should have gone to the teacher and made the case that the bully was picking on the autistic child and then trusted the teacher to handle the situation with wisdom and maturity. While I fully appreciate that and see the wisdom and direct correlation to adult life, I just don't agree. LL saw the teacher observe the bullying throughout the day with no repurcussions for the guilty party. LL was patient throughout the day using words to express his displeasure with the bully before finally stepping up and delivering a clear message that the bullying won't be tolerated.

I don't want my kid to grow up and become some nutjob vigilante but I (internally) applaud his decision to mark his ideas of right and wrong on the situation by protecting someone he viewed as unable to protect himself. (with the understanding that injury was not a likely prediction)

Ideas? Thoughts? Insults?