9yo DD slapped in the face by a boy at school. What do I do next?

[grumples]

Obviously I want to go and tear his shitty limbs off one by one, but am looking for suggestions for other ways to deal with this. He’s in the same year as DD but in a different class. The conflict that precipitated it was DD asking him to move away from her and her friend, at which point the Little Shit slapped her across the face. I’d never heard anything about him up until today.

Do I email her teacher and CC in the principal? Or go straight to the principal? I’ve no idea how to handle this so would be grateful for any suggestions!

Located in Australia FWIW :)

straight to the head

First port is school, but log the incident in an email, word it as DD says DD feels etc and ask the teachers to speak to both children. Say they have a duty to safe guard the children.

Did she report it at the time?

Then log any more if it gets worse.

Did this happen while at school? If so I would hope that the matter was dealt with there, although I can appreciate that you would still be fuming.

Teacher, cc principal

Does she have any marks? Make sure to take photos and definitely put everything in writing. I hope she's OK.

That's a good idea, thank you! She's in bed now and I didn't notice anything when she came home but will look again tomorrow when she wakes up.

She didn’t report it at the time, and wasn’t completely clear on why, which was puzzling.

I'd be cautious about going in all guns blazing, especially if your daughter didn't say anything at the time. There's often more to these situations than a child will disclose to their parent so he might not be the Little Shit you are presuming. By all means believe your daughter and advocate for her though.

This happened to me at school. The boy that did it was from a really rough family and knew where I lived ( it was near the school). I didn’t tell anyone as I was scared what he and his family would do to my house/my mum and dad if I said anything. I still think about it now, I hate him with a burning hot rage.

I'd march straight into the school office first thing and talk to them face to face. Tell them rather firmly that you need to speak to the head straight away, because your child has been assaulted.

No point in going in all guns blaring, the school may well be completely unaware of this incident.

If they did know, and hadn't told the OP, then more of a reason to be cross and start making demands.

Hotfroth
What a completely stupid suggestion. The op said her child didn't report it. The normal reaction would be to email the teacher and ask them to look into it. If true the other child would be given a sanction in line with the schools behaviour policy.

OP

Report it to the police. It's assault.
If they say he's too young so not their problem insist that they go and talk to his parents and record it anyway so there's a record for when he continues to do it from age 10 on (age of criminal responsibility).
Don't be fobbed off - insist, ask to talk to a sergeant etc, email the police as well to have it in writing.

Fgs we are talking about a 9yo here, not an 18yo.
Ging to the police is nit the right way to deal with that incident.

It IS serious enough to involved the teacher and HT and ask them how they are going to ensure the safety of the dd.

Bonheurdupasse
I would love to be there during that conversation.
Op my dd says she told a boy to go away in the playground and he slapped her.
Police - Let me go round and arrest him.

Utterly bonkers. 😂

When did this happen?

And what’s the school policy on issues like this?

You also need to allow the school time to find out what happened. Your child may not be telling the whole truth. On many occasions I have investigated such incidents to find it is not quite as straight forward as the parent has been led to believe.

Mention it to both class teachers, in an email if possible too, and ask them to investigate as far as possible what happened (obviously they may not have seen it, and DD didn't report it).

No need to go marching into the school office all guns blazing yet (as one pp has advised), that will only put people's backs up before you know for sure what actually happened.

Whatever their findings, see what they advise with regard to helping your DD and keeping her safe.

What a load of bollocks!