Car Thieves and Bad Neighborhoods

This is not entirely school related, but I had my car stolen two weeks ago. Not from my school, but from in front of my house in Alameda. Apparently, according to our neighbors the rat-sitters (ok, it's really a doggie day care, but they're all bite-size yippy dogs, so we call them the rats, and hence, the rat-sitters), it's the 4th Honda to be stolen off our block in the last two weeks. Would have been more helpful information to me BEFORE it was stolen, but...Anyway, after a huge headache and a lot of worry, I got a new (to me) car, which the kids have named Shelby. I don't know why they named it Shelby, but they all seem to agree.

Having my car stolen gives me something in common with a lot of the students' families too. Not my favorite way to find common ground.

The kids are acting crazy this week and wearing me down. A lot of it is because of the shooting this weekend - even for kids who are used to this kind of violence, there have been more murders lately, this one was right close to us, it was a relative of two of the kids just in my class, and of course, it was during the day, which is unusual even for our neighborhood. Their parents are worried, the kids who are aware are worried or scared or sad or all mixed up, and everyone is acting out in a kind of plea for attention and security. It's exhausting me.

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