In this profession there are some days, you go home feeling that if you had spent your day banging your head against the concrete school house walls you might have actually been more productive. Full moons and spring fever do strange things to kids, and when you couple the possibility of "swine flu" you are just asking for more than you bargained! My day began with a summonsed to my boss's office. Being called to his office before school can only mean one of three things, 1) You have peeved some parent that is now screaming at him 2) The Superintendent called 3) Someone has died. The perspective of any of the options was not appealing, especially since I had not had my first cup of coffee for the day!
I was joined by my colleagues and we sat listening of how we could possibly have our first case of the "swine flu." News emerged from last night's volleyball game and one of the young men could have been infected as early as last week's prom... we all sat in the room with him! Concerned that these were NOT confirmed cases, the boss was afraid it would travel quickly through the grapevine and wanted a plan of action so that we didn't cause undo panic in the school and community. We agreed we would wait to hear from County Health officials and would direct all calls to the Nurse's office. (Later found out both boys had plain garden variety flu!) We also agreed that this would NOT be a good day, but little did we know how bad it would be and it would have nothing to do with panicked parents, kissing pigs, or sanitizing the gym! It had been a long week, we were all sick and exhausted... and we just wanted the day to be over!
We delayed our management meeting to allow counselors to begin Advanced Placement (AP) testing and quickly moved through the depressing agenda. Still no money, layoffs ahead and no hope in sight... then one by one the assistant principals were called out. Agitated by whatever environmental force you choose to blame, the children started behaving badly! My first case was an emotionally disturbed kid who told the teacher he'd do what he wanted that she couldn't tell him what to do... I didn't finish this one before panic calls started echoing over our now broken radio system.
Diego (you can't forget him) and Tyrone was facing off and standing behind them were groups of Latino males and African American males, now postured for the battle of the century! My colleagues escorted the two to the office and quickly dispersed the rest to their respective educational responsibilities. I left my ED kid in a fury as I had "dealt" this this situation two days ago and I wasn't in the mood for a repeat performance!
I walked into my colleague's office to find my boss sitting with Diego who was bobbing up and down from his seat slapping his fist in his hand and breathing like a rabid animal. I sat down, and said "Breathe." After we calmed him a bit... I asked him what had happened. He reported that Tyrone had been giving him looks (mad dogging) and he went up to him and said "Why you looking at me while I am with my lady"? Tyrone, later reported that he lost his temper at this point because Diego's friends wouldn't leave him alone regarding a situation that occured off campus (neither Diego or Tyrone were involved)... so he threw down his back pack and was ready to rumble! Diego became more and more agitated as he told his story... to the point I yelled for a secretary to call the police. Being that he was now on probation for gun charges this calmed him a bit. I asked him why he went up to the young man after I specifically told him to stay away from him? He replied, "I knew you would turn this around on me... I walked away I didn't hit him because my lady was there." I congratulated him on his few seconds of wisdom, then again asked him if he understood that his actions are what caused this mess to begin with... and why didn't he come to the office instead. He replied, "I don't do things that way."
I shook my head... for a moment I had forgotten that it was Diego's world and the rest of us were just passing through. Now totally frustrated, I told my boss that I was going to call his Probation Officer and left the room. I had just hung up my phone, when four police officers emerged with Truman (also mentioned several times in blog) in cuffs. According to their report, while we were "calming Diego," Truman decided to steal a pizza from the cafeteria. When asked to return it by and come with a Campus Supervisor, he rubbed it on his crotch and walked away! He refused to come to the office with any school personnel, and it took a police officer taking him to the ground (after he swung at him) to get him to my office. He was also swinging back and forth in the chair referring to the arresting officer with a racial slur and spitting on the floor. I spent the next twenty minutes calming Truman and calling for his father to come get him.
I stepped out of the office only to see my boss running to the side door telling me to come that their was another fight in the five building. By the time we arrived others had handled the situation of yet another face off and my colleague was being yelled out by a group of students all wearing red. It seems that Tyrone's "friends and family" network had now taken up his cause and was causing havoc. My colleague escorted them all to the office suspended them and spent the rest of the afternoon explaining to their parents why they could no longer wear the color red to school!
When I walked back into the office, I noticed yet another police officer standing by a door, to find Kevin, harmless member of the frequent- flyer club, sitting in the administrative conference room also in cuffs. I shook my head and laughed as I asked the officer... "and what did he do"? He was associated with the Truman incident and also refused to stop for the police.
Truman and Diego were now suspended. Diego was still "on ice" waiting for a nice little conference with the Boys in Blue. While waiting, Diego commented to my colleague, "if you suspend me there will be a riot on this campus." His counselor warned him about making threats, he replied, "it is not a threat it is a promise." HALLELUJAH!!!! We FINALLY have grounds to go for expulsion and get rid of him!!! Of course this was unknown to me, who was at the time calling my friend at the district office stating that it was "Bull S--" that he was at our school in the first place only because had threatened to "run away from home" if he was sent to the county school! Heck, I would have even offered to help him pack!!!
After that it became a blur, the last thing I remember is submitting paperwork for a drug bust that found it's way into the mix of chaos. Twelve suspensions and one expulsion later we thought all was calm... until the final bell rang. We were called to the quad for three additional unrelated fights that we will be dealing with come Monday morning!
There isn't a doubt in my mind that school officials suffer from traumatic stress disorder after a day like this... when I finally finished all my remaining paperwork at 6:00 pm, I went home and literally fell on my bed with tears rolling down my face. We had lost today's battle... my motto for the remainder of the school year is "Take No Prisoners." It is amazing how TWO kids can disrupt the entire school in one of the safest cities in America... this can not and WILL NOT happen again!
This is warfare people!
