Do you really know what you're teaching your kids?

I'm not just talking about what you sit down and tell your kids. Not just what you consciously do in front of your kids so that they can utilize what an excellent example of paternal care you are. I'm talking about the lessons you give your kids without even realizing it. The ones they overhear when you’re talking to your friends. The ones they observe when you yell at the television set because your team lost. The ones that your kids shouldn’t get at their age but they do because they’re out of bed and sneaking around, why? because they’re kids. Those lessons. Do you have any idea what you are teaching your kids through those lessons?

I ask because I just found out, after the school year is over, that my 10 year old cousin had been bullied the entire year and now he's afraid to go to school this coming year because he will most likely have to deal with the same kids.

What was he being bullied over? Being Muslim.

My blood is boiling. Seriously?? SERIOUSLY?? I'm not being able to digest this. In as diverse a city as Houston, lo and behold there is still ignorance lurking in the corners. And it's getting the kids.

So this cousin of mine was excessively bullied after 9/11. His peers called him all sorts of foul names.

The pushed him, twisted his arm, and stuck their faces in his as they mocked him.

They shoved food in his face when he was fasting during Ramadan.

They threw dirt at him during recess.

There was a little girl on crutches who called him a terrorist and would stomp on his toes with her crutch. My cousin never told on her because he felt sorry for her.

There was a little boy who maliciously asked him "why does your mom wear a rag on her head?"

Two other kids took the crosses they wore and pushed it in his face saying "convert! convert!"

Just for the hell of it, they called my cousin fat (which he's not but now he feels like he is).

And they threatened if he told the teacher. But that didn't make much of a difference anyways because his teachers were of no help. Of all these instances my little cousin recalled 2, maybe 3 times when his teachers stood up for him, during the more extreme cases. Otherwise they would often tell him to put his hand down or, get this, STOP TATTLING. Is anyone else thinking WTF!

My cousin came home crying and depressed more days than he could count.

And he wasn't alone.

There were 3 other Muslim kids who were bullied through the year without help.

One little hijabi was bullied into a corner where the other kids mocked her for wearing a "rag." The girls in that group flung their hair in her face, and the boys proceeded to pull it off her head completely. This was the only time the teachers decided to call parents and send these creatures to the front office.

Is your blood boiling yet?

According to my cousin the school has made efforts in informing the children of the difference between a terrorist and a Muslim. They has even had little events specifically to acquaint children with the idea of diversity, including a positive perspective of Muslims.

Which makes me think that the next place these bullies are getting their ideas from, is home. Do their parents know what vile little monsters they’re raising? Honestly, don’t they watch what they say? How can you talk so ignorantly and maliciously in front of little kids? And even when you think you’re alone you should watch your mouth if you have children in the house. You never know what they are going to hear. And you never know how they're going to take it. Or maybe these parents are home-growing their own brand of terrorism; I'd certainly classify it as such if these are conscious lessons.

This whole situation has me pissed. I'm pissed as hell that all this went on for a freakin year and I couldn’t do anything about it because I'm just now finding out. I'm pissed as hell at the teachers. Teachers are there as a second guardians. Your students should feel safe at school because of you. Your students should NOT feel like they can't come to you. Your students should NOT feel like there is no point in coming to you because you won't do shit. What the hell kind of teacher are you?!

And of course I'm ticked off as hell with these ignorant parents spewing stupidity in their houses so that their children can catch it like a disease and spread it on to other influential kids so that they all band together as a bunch of sick mutants to pick on the kids that are a little bit different from their own. How do you have the right to be a parent! There should be a universal law against people with this immense amount of ignorance passing their DNA on to the next generation. If humans still lived in the world of the fittest survive, these are the kind of people that nature would not have allowed to pass their genes on.

Inshallah, this kind of thing will never happen to my cousin again. I've told him to tell me if he sees these kids again next year and they pick up their antics again. I don’t know what I can do, but I'm going to do my best to prevent my cousin from seeing a year like this again. I'm all for growing up and teaching kids to fight their own battles, but this thing has crossed the line. He's 10! No ten year old should have to deal with shit like this. What happened to the days where our biggest concern was cooties?

Seriously, if you're a parent, or are planning to be a parent in your future, realize your responsibility. Realize that your kids will hear you when you think they’re not listening. They will see you when you think they won’t. And they will absorb everything around them like a sponge. They will emulate what they see and hear because that is what they think is right. If you are not ready to deal with being responsible for another life, in every definition of the word, then you need to back the hell of the parenting pedestal.

....Still pissed about all this.