Teasing too far?

There's this girl in Zee's first grade class--we'll call her Austin, not because her name is Austin but because her name is also usually a boy's name. "Austin" has been giving Zee some trouble lately. He has come home sad at least five times because of her teasing--three in the last two weeks alone.

The first several times he complained about Austin, I told him to ignore her. Apparently she chases him at recess. (Does that mean she likes him? They are in first grade, people!) Yesterday, however, he was in tears at the end of school, because she had been really mean to him prior to the bell. Apparently they had been sent to fetch the lunch box basket from the lunchroom, and on the way back, she ripped the basket away from him (they were both carrying it), scraping his hand. Since this happened in the hallway, no teacher saw what happened. Zee yelled, and then got in trouble for yelling in the hallway.

I spoke briefly to the student teacher, Ms. C., and asked her to please keep an eye on any Zee-and-Austin interactions. I really wasn't sure the situation warranted anything else, because I know my son is oversensitive and over-reactionary.

Then, today after school, while Zee was coming out the doors, I watched a little girl walking behind him. She reached into his open backpack, and carefully pulled out his lunchbox. She then immediately turned around and started walking the other way. (I should note that he has temporarily lost his lunchbox twice in the last two weeks--we had assumed it had simply fallen out of his backpack. Now, I wonder.)

I called out. "Hey, Zee, your lunchbox! Please give that back to him!"

The little girl spun back around, her eyes wide. She shoved the lunchbox at Zee.

"Why did you take his lunchbox out of his backpack?" I asked her, walking quickly over to them.

"It fell out!" she said.

"No, it did not. I watch you take it out. Don't do that again, please." I imagine I was fairly stern, but honestly, I was more surprised than anything else.

"It fell out!" she said again, and walked quickly away.

"Who was that, Zee?" I asked him.

"Oh, that was Austin," he answered.

Of course.

We had a little talk on the way home, and we decided that he'll try to stay away from Austin from now on, and he'll try to remember to zip up his backpack. And I'm going to write a little email to his teachers, give them a heads-up, and ask them to not put Zee and Austin together for any tasks, if possible. I don't think she had anything more than teasing in mind this afternoon, but I'm not okay with that. Zee doesn't like school as it is (a whole 'nother situation), and Austin is not helping.

First grade, people. And I've got four more after him. Yikes.