If memory serves correctly there is an old song with the lyrics, "What's wrong with these kids today?" This age old question just doesn’t seem to find an answer. It is apparent that despite what the Almanac says, spring has sprung in Southern California. Seems just as teachers are running on their last fumes, students get spring fever and the educational process never turns out well. Some how I manage to bury the horrors of the previous spring and proclaim each year that “This is the most defiant group of kids we’ve had in years.” The past two weeks have been no exception:
Last Wednesday – My own incident with Raul already logged in blog… he was transported to juvenile hall. My visit with his probation officer revealed that he will be housed for up to ninety days then transferred to a court school.
Last Friday– A Math teacher reports that student did not bring materials to class (yet again.) In an attempt to break this bad habit he sent the young man as well others to office. On the way out the door Donnie told the teacher “He will see him at his moped after school.” (Gas prices are so high in California several teachers now ride bicycles, motorcycles and mopeds to work)
Monday – Today I had a conference with one of our seasoned teachers who reported that Connie, who is in his 9th grade science class, cussed him out while he was attempting to redirect the misbehavior of another student. “You are wasting my F—king time… you are such a dumb A-s you can even control your own class” she yelled. I called her now mortified mother and sent her home for five days.
Tuesday – A dedicated district official and myself held Mini SARB meetings for students with habitual truancies. The majority of the day is filled with so-called “medical excuses” ranging from my child has allergies to pancreatic scarring. I guess the most frustrating was the later of the two. It seems that the young man did indeed do some life threatening damage to his pancreas while racing in a motorbike accident. However, the absences were not primarily related to the medical issues, but the father’s obsession with his son getting corporate sponsorship for his cart racing. This has included ditching everyFriday to participate in races. This young man has a learning disability and Dad was less concerned about leaving him in a school that can provide services for an appropriate education in lieu of a corporate school that would allow his son to race.
Wednesday – Male student, Curtis, attempted to start fight with another student in PE, the Physical Education teacher stepped between boys to stop the fight. Curtis pushed coach; another PE teacher grabbed Curtis and restrained him so his colleague would not be injured. Curtis went home and told his father that coach put him in a choke hold and called him a racially charged name. An administrative colleague wasted almost a week investigating nonsense.
After school our visionary ELD director walked in my office and closed the door. He stated, “I’ve had it.” Our English Learners were misbehaving in all their classes. He went on the say the new aide wasn’t helping since she wanted to be their friend and was more disruptive than the students. I asked if I could help, and his remark was, “No, I will handle it… you have more important things on your plate.”
Thursday – One of our most inspiring young teachers came into my office in tears (she had dried mine after incident last week) and stated that she was lured into a yelling match with Mike, one of the students in her At Risk Study Skills class. Mike routinely does not bring materials to class, is defiant, disruptive and she was now heart-broken that she was not able to reach this young man.
Coach from PE class dropped by office after he finished coaching team at 5:00 pm… stated incident was seriously affecting him. Stated that he was nervous the kid would lie to press and cause undue damaged to the district. I assured him that we were thoroughly investing the situation and he should not worry.
Friday – Math teacher contacts us again… he had gone to his bike and a screw had been loosened. He requested that the student be moved out of his class. We gladly compiled.
My colleague asked me to cover her in a parent conference Monday morning, she had suspended one of my students, John the previous week for flipping off a teacher and telling him that nobody was going to f—king tell him what to do.” I had his brother several years ago… who added new gray hairs. Counselor shared that the same brother is now a heroin addict and John was very concerned about him. He went on the explain that his father is a drunk and many times John has to take care of his mother because of his father’s addiction.
Friday afternoon, sixty boxes of STAR exams arrived at school that needed to be inventoried. This set-up process will require being “out of the office” for about two weeks. A colleague will also be out on a WASC visit. Someone tell me, when the zookeepers are cleaning the cages who controls all the crazy baboons?
