And Then He Was Gone

I started and stopped writing this post four times because I couldn't find the right words to describe how big a loss his leaving will mean to our school.  I knew it was coming as we talked about it on a number of occasions while we were in the car heading to either school or practice.  Even knowing about it didn't help much when I received the text message at about 9:15pm on Thursday.  I can't recall the exact wording except for the last few words which were Friday is my last day.

Initially we didn't know each other very well.  He occupied a classroom down the hall from me and we'd say good morning or how are you doing today but that was it.  That changed a lot in either October or November of 2012 when the teacher I was paired with transferred to another school.  Initially substitute teachers were assigned to my classroom which was fine with me.  At some time in the future I'll have to tell you about some of the substitutes I've met.  One morning when I walked into the school the administrative door guard informed me that I would not have a substitute teacher for the day.  Ok is what I said and reminded the administrative door guard that I can't be in the classroom by myself.  She said that The Big B was working on it.  About twenty minutes later he walked in the room.  Mr. Schultz The Big B sent me here to help you out.  I can't recall exactly what I said to him but a few minutes after arriving he asked me if there were any lesson plans for the day.  I said no.  He said you've got to be kidding.  I said no but I have worksheets and we are going to wing it and we ended up winging it for several consecutive days.

One day while we were without a substitute teacher he said to me Mr. Schultz I don't think they need to hire a teacher they should just hire you.  I looked at him and said man you aren't thinking clearly.  He look at me and said I knew the previous teacher and you got more work out of these scholars than she did.  I looked at him and said I'll take the teaching job under one condition and that is that you have to take the instructional assistant job.  All further conversations about me teaching the class ended abruptly.

If you are familiar with the good cop bad cop scenario he was the bad cop at our school.  He was in charge of our in school suspension room plus he had a bus duty roll and a cafeteria monitor roll.  This is a tough job because all day long he dealt with scholars who were kicked out of their

classroom due  to disruptive behavior.  It was fairly common for me to hear him in the hallway being the bad guy.  In a raised voice I'd hear stay in line, stop talking or I'm going to call your parental unit and tell them  how you are behaving.  On a good day he'd have one or two scholars in his room.  On a bad day he  could have from five to seven scholars in his room.  When he had a chance to speak to me he'd say I  wish I got spend one evening with these disruptive scholars and tell them a few facts of life about  their behavior.  Just so you know I cleaned that up a little.  No I actually cleaned that up a lot.

I saved the best part for last.  This man was a coach and you could tell he loved doing it.  His two primary sports were football and basketball and from what I can tell he coached practically year round.  Mostly it was youth sports, grade school and middle school and of late high school.  There was a day when I was driving him to practice and he decided to call a scholar athlete and have a chat  with a young man.  Listen you're messing up and it has to stop or you will not be on my team.  Don't  tell me what so and so said I don't care.  Don't tell me what so and so did I don't care.  Listen to me  this is about you and what you are doing do you understand me?  Good now I will tell you one more  time so we are clear on this.  If you mess up one more time you will not be on my team.  Goodby!   The whole time he was talking to this young scholar athlete I kept thing he is a special person.

It's the last day of school and this man in charge of the in school suspension room has to say goodby.  This man who had to be aggressive and speakly loudly to disruptive scholars all day long was leaving.  I was told by the sixth grade teachers that scholars in their classes had tears in their eyes when he told them he was leaving.  This public grade school just lost a great man as he took a staff  position and a coaching position at his alma mater.