Friday's are typically my favorite day of the week... folks seem to have a spring in their step thinking of the possibilities of the weekend to come. Sure schools get a little nutty, but I just remind myself that it is job security! Today I awoke and realized that this would not be "the happiest day of the week" and just rolled over when the alarm sounded. Since about the age of 13 I have suffered with acute angiodema... when triggered I look like a good bridal candidate for the Elephant Man. This time with all the smoke and gunk in the air, my allergies caused my upper lip to swell up which resembled a botox job gone really bad. I called the office to explain my plight and that would be in as soon as the meds kicked in.
Finally about 9:30 I was able to get out of the house with only a small bump over my lip. Realizing that Debbie would not be there, I sighed in disgust wondering what joys the children had in store for me today. My secretary, Debbie, had been off now for two weeks with personal business and no one had been dealing with my "bellows." I rushed to the building knowing there was an Assistant Principal's meeting which started an hour ago. My boss looked at me and resisted the temptation for another "Elephant Man" joke instead told me that we had two police officers were on campus because "there were rumors of a school shooting today." Immediately I knew the source. Yesterday a young man (known for his melodrama) rushed into my office and said he had overheard "some kids wearing black saying... yeah I'm gonna shoot him." He of course shared this with everyone he knew and caused mass hysteria among our parents. He could not tell me "who" said this or "identify" them from a picture book so I notified the police department and crossed my fingers it was just some smart mouth kid spurting his frustration. Of course our "melodrama king's" friends told their parents and the school phone rang all morning.
We searched every nook and cranny during lunch supervision when my colleague received a radio call from her secretary that a young man was in the office and needed to speak to her. We met the young man and he informed us that his girlfriend has just seen a kid that had been "mad dogging him" with a knife tucked in his pants. We immediately found the student in our lowest level of English Language Learners... we had much difficulty communicating with him but managed to get him out of the classroom and searched him on the spot. I radioed for the police officers to join us, but they could not find the weapon on him either. We escorted the young man office and managed to trace the description of another young man that he said showed him a knife earlier in the day.
Of course this young man had PE that period and was somewhere in the mass of hundreds of kids outside participating in activities. My principal searched his locker and I went on the trek to find him. I asked several kids where he was, and later found him with a group of kids huddled around him asking "What did you do"? Of course it is never a good thing for an assistant principal to come looking for you.
We escorted him back to the office and when I asked him why people said he had a knife, he replied I do. I asked him where it was located and he pulled it from the top of his boxer shorts and handed it to me. It was quite the sight... about a four and half inch locking blade. I asked him why he brought a knife to school and he replied, "Some friends told me that freshmen get beat up, so I brought it for protection." I asked him if anyone was harassing him and he replied, "no." I then asked him if it was OK for students to bring knifes to school in the Philippians, and he replied "NO" and looked at me as if I was stupid. I then asked him why then did he think it was OK to bring it to school in the US... he started crying.
I then attempted to explain to him that he was suspended, would be cited by the police and because of the nature of the offense he could not return to school until we attended an expulsion hearing. He then asked me if it was OK for him to go to his next period class because he had a test. This time I sat there with a look of bewilderment on my face, this young man had no idea how deep he was at the moment.
His parents were mortified as we sent him home. It simply breaks my heart to make phone calls that I know is going to devastate a family. It was now 2:30 pm and I made an attempt to sneak out the front door for fast food since I had not eaten all day... when a radio call came. The original two young men were facing off in the hallway. We had them escorted to the office for some good ole mediation... or basically "Knock it off or your Mama can pick you up at the Police Station"! The boys shook hands and left in peace.
I sighed a deep breath when our lead campus supervisor reminded me that we had football in a couple hours and my plants needed watering. The football game didn't get any better, chasing off local druggies, kids throwing food that almost ended in blows, and my all time favorite the 30 something drunks that were cuffed and taken to the ground before they opted to leave the premises... IS IT SATURDAY YET?
