The Plot Thickens

Yes as with all good stories the plot thickens. There is more on SOB. Are you surprised? You shouldn't be, school has not ended.

The next day at lunch SOB's momma was the topic of discussion! A few of my lunch buddies and fellow educators had also spoke with momma that morning. Her attitude had not changed and the most polite description of her attitude was terse. Like all bad commercials, there was more! Momma told another educator about her sick and dying parent. Momma was just so concerned that she might have to leave her baby here, to go to summer school, while she was in a different state tending to her ailing parent.

I almost bought that except my principal had stopped me on my way to lunch to give me a heads up about having end of the year tests done a few days early as Useless Bag of Flesh (I had that one last year) will be going to a major amusement park before school has ended, during our "finals" and guess who is going with Useless?? Yes SOB! When I shared that info at lunch; all conversation ceased. Yes, that is the feeling of being sucker punched. Today we got the official memo about giving the tests early to the previously named Useless and SOB aka the Dynamic Duo. I will give SOB the grade earned, but I would REALLY, REALLYlike to fail momma! On the other hand I may give a party that they have left the building early!

I, for the first time in my career took a student to the Assistant Principal and requested they not come back. Lumpy, spent quite a bit of time defacing the textbook. Lumpy had a piece of junk, and kept scraping it across the cover of the book. Yes, books are supposed to be covered. I asked Lumpy to stop, and I could not exactly figure out what was going on. Lumpy did not stop. It was not the motion, but the subtle noise that it made that really clued me in. I got a very close look at Lumpy's book, and could how it had been deeply scraped. The books are only two years old. So I escorted Lumpy to the AP's office, showed him what Lumpy had done and requested that Lumpy not return. My wish was granted. Lumpy has only turned in about 5 assignments this year, and had not been a major behavior problem; hence the name Lumpy.

The "assembly" this afternoon put the frosting on the cake. The Athletic Director for the high school we feed into came to speak to the classes. He was late. I can deal with late, it happens. His message bothered me. Basically he said if you aren't on a sports team you are a loser. He gave lip service to a couple of round ball sports and talked FOOTBALL! Nothing was said about sports for girls, no mention of tennis, or golf, sports people use for years. He did "advertise" about how track helps you play better football. What I have repeated here is what my students shared with me. That is the message the kids heard. That is the message I heard. I could really rant about all of it, but the man shot himself in the foot. Kids that had been interested were turned off.

Finally I'll share how I started my day, I think I broke the law. Lil' Bro came into class early to tell me he had not done his assignment. Gramps had been injured and so they had spent all their time at the ER and ICU. Lil' Bro was in tears. He is a spirited kid, but not given to deep displays of emotion. I asked if he needed a hug and he nodded. I hugged him. We walked down to the administrative wing and I got him into the counselor's office. On my way back I let the rest of his teachers who are in my building know what happened.

Lil' Bro came back to class, put his head down and quietly was emotional. I escorted him to the library, saying he could finish his assignment there, while we graded it. Before I left is when I think I broke the law. I asked if he wanted a prayer said for Gramps. He did, so we bowed our heads and prayed for the doctors and nurses to know what to do, and for Gramps to recover quickly.

On top of all this it was also group picture day! Teaching, ya gotta love it; it's never dull, never boring and never the same two days (make that classes) in a row.