Skip to main content

At Least I'm Not Dealing With This

I've had a fairly frustrating situation with one of my tutoring clients recently.  However, I came across this old post and had to be glad that I'm not dealing with THIS anymore:


Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Suspension Form

I suspended a kid today - let's call her "Alexis" - and these are the reasons I gave on her suspension form:
  • Erasing the lesson on the board
  • Ripping up the list of who hadn't done their homework
  • Giving another kid a wet willy
  • Taking pencils away from kids and taunting them as the kids tried to get them back
  • Taking things off my desk
  • Putting Purell on kids' heads
  • Taking stickers off my desk, sticking them on her crotch, and dancing around thrusting her pelvis out
  • Screaming
  • Refusing to go to the office
  • Threatening to "slap the f--- out of" another kid
  • A lot of other threats that ended with "with your ugly old self"
I think there might have been more.  She wouldn't leave when the assistant principal came up and the rest of my class had to go to the computer lab to do their work because we're not allowed to pick up children and drag them to the office (stupid laws).  Also, she could beat up the assistant principal.

She also told her mom that I scream at her, that I'm lying, and that she "hates this old school."  The assistant principal pointed out that she has 7 teachers who all say the same thing and they can't all be lying, but logic was not working.''

The amazing thing was that the rest of the class ignored her pretty effectively.  There was the one kid who laughed in her face, but he always teases other kids (his new thing is to make fun of the boys for having "girly" names which is pretty funny because he actually has a unisex name so he's just asking for trouble).  The rest of the kids, including her usual posse, just ignored her.  They kind of rolled their eyes but they kept working. One of her usual friends started to join in and I asked him if he wanted Alexis to decide his grade or if he wanted to decide his own and he actually made the right decision!  (This is the kid who told me how much he hated me on the first two days I was there).

Also, I felt good because I didn't raise my voice once.  I didn't have to because it was only one kid going crazy and the rest kept working.  Also because the administration came when I called.

This girl really is not all right though.  This is one of our usual conversations:

Me: Hi, Alexis, how are you doing?
Alexis: Don't you scream at me!  You always be screaming at people with your ugly old self!

Me: You're doing a good job today.
Alexis: Ooh, I swear to God!  You always be screaming and lying!  I hate you with your ugly old self!

Something is very wrong.

One year ago: If Geckos Went to School

Three years ago: If I Were President, I Would Melt All of the Guns

Four years ago: NCLB Backlash
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class.
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other prison but I still
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea
Post a Comment
Read more