Pastor Rick Warren said today in his sermon, "If you want to make a difference in the world, you have to be willing to be interrupted." Interruptions... don't like em, dread em, and just down right hate em most of the time. You see, I am sort of a control freak and I prefer to wrap my days all nice and pretty and tie them off with a bow. Unfortunately, that is not the world of a school administrator... one never knows for moment to moment what is going to walk through the door and interrupt our perfectly planned day.
Today it was Brenda. Brenda is a special kid... not only is she in special education classes, but she has been dropped from South Central Los Angeles into the heart of suburbia... Simi Valley. Many urban school are interesting in that their students are socialized that they have to be harder and louder than the pack and they quickly learn if they show any sign of emotion, they will be gobbled up by the bigger fish and spit out for all to see. Suburban schools are very different, loud, hard kids are ostracized, labeled as "trouble-makers" and quickly farmed off to the local continuation school.
My first "interruption" by Brenda occurred about a month ago, when the teacher "threw her out of class" for her obnoxious behavior and I received a call from a campus supervisor that she was refusing to come to the office. I met them outside of the 5 building and I could quickly see that Brenda "wasn't a Simi Valley kid." Let's just say, she refused to walk for the campus supervisor or me. We finally had to threaten to get a police officer to move her. When we finally got her to the office, she stole our hearts.
Brenda is hard, she is hard because she has been in seven foster families since elementary school. She has been moved from home to home, school to school and now she had multiple layers of callousness which prevents her from being hurt again. Brenda now lives with her sister because her mother and father refuse to take her and her sister is her last hope before she gets shipped off to yet another foster home. Now 16 years old, Brenda wants to be treated like an adult, but lacks the simple graces to be treated like one in the heart of suburbia.
Wednesday morning I was interviewing English Learner aides when I was "interrupted" with the news that Brenda had threatened another student and walked out of her history class. The best I could understand... she seated her self by a girl that she did not like in the computer lab, and kept making noises to annoy her until the girl got so upset she yelled, caused a scene and the teacher told Brenda to move. When the teacher told her to move, she began cursing and walked out of the lab.
Campus security began frantically looking for her. One campus supervisor thought that she found her in the restroom I spent five minutes on the radio trying to convince the wrong kid to come out of the restroom stall and come to the office... did I mention was was in the middle of ELD aide interviews? When they finally found her, frustrated I quickly suspended her and called her sister. This was followed by a multitude of tears from this hard core kid begging me not to send her home because they were going to "yell" at her. HECK... SHE WAS LUCKY I WASN'T YELLING AT HER!
Friday morning she returned from suspension, and once again she "interrupted" a meeting to tell me that she did not want to go back to her history class until we had a chance to meet with the teacher Monday. So I agreed to let her work on her assignment in the office and arranged to get her work for the day. She also asked me if I would callher sister at the end of the day and let her know that she had a good day... ordinarily, I would make some excuse, but this time I said... "of course I will."
Friday's referrals came and went and 5th period I received a call from the nurse's office that Brenda had shared with her English teacher that she wanted to hurt herself. This is the one thing that will stop any school official in their tracks. We are mandated reporters and if a child reports abuse or thought of hurting themselves we are required by law to report it. I quickly called the Crisis Intervention Team and before I got off the phone with them, Brenda and her teacher were both in my office. The Crisis Team opted to send a couple of counselors to the school for her and would possibly hold her the hospital for 42 hours if they deemed she might actually follow through with the threat.
During the 45 minute wait for the Crisis Team and Brenda's sister to arrive, I feel I saw just a small glimpse of the real child. Despite the F-bombs dropped public places and the hard exterior this child was disintegrating internally. Knowing that her parents refused to take her and now her sister was at her wits end with her, she didn't know what to do but to end it all. I pathetically attempted to shared that she was special to our staff and we would be devastated if anything happened to her. I told her that she reminded me a lot of myself (never thought this might be enough to push her over the edge) in that some times my mouth over rules my brain. I attempted to explain that all families have problems and that I was so mouthy when I was her age that my mother threatened to put me away in a private Catholic school... of course my smart mouth replied, "but Mom, we're Baptist." I got a laugh for that one.
Finally both the Crisis Team and Brenda's sister arrived and I was banished from my office for an hour and a half... but that was ok. The "interruption" had been worth it. Brenda was released to her sister. Now they will have counseling options available to them that would have taken months for the slow wheel of bureaucracy to provide.
I guess as much as I despise them, some "interruptions" are critical to let us know where we need to focus on our attention. I am glad for once, I allowed destiny to take control and shelve my personal agenda. It makes me wonder though, how many Brenda's do I overlook everyday in my simple quest for organization?
