Jake LaMatta - KO'd On the Third Day

I've been deferring this post long enough.  So long that you may want to revisit my original post on Jake LaMatta that goes back to April.

Once we were informed that the decision to allow Jake to return to our school was final our immediate thought was student safety.  From my view at the back of the room I began to scan my sector.  By the way that is a little bit of military lingo.  BaseG and I agreed that the area with the most potential to have an injury occur was by the computers.  As a reminder if our scholars perform well they earn computer time to play games.  These devices are like giant magnets that all day long tug at them so to finally get there is nirvana to them.  The problem is we will now have seven scholars and three computers so tempers rise quickly as everyone rushes to get a computer.  Our first target is to move a desk and chair that sits by the computers as it has already been pushed around by angry scholars.  The last thing we need is for someone to ram the desk into a computer stand and worse yet a computer stand with a scholar sitting at hit.  This is a big metal desk and in order to move it I had to remove it's contents and then slide it all the way across the room.  We then scanned the computer area for any objects that could be used as projectiles and removed them.  Our next target was a table on the opposite side of the room.  Like the desk it has been moved and slammed into the wall previously so we completely removed it from the room.  Our final objective was the placement of Jake's desk and chair.  We decide to put him in the front left side of the room.  This puts him between us so if he goes into eruption we can close in on him from both sides and hopefully keep him and everyone else safe.  I suspect someone may think we are overreacting so let me tell you this.  At his previous school Jake got so angry that he forced open a classroom door so hard he bent the door frame.

We are now prepared for Jack's return.  By the way because of past behavioral issues Jake only goes to school in the morning.  Also he is only in school for two hours as he resides outside our school boundaries and special bus arrangements were made to get him to our school.

Day One - Monday

I was out of the classroom on Jake's first day.  Because of the type of scholars we have we are supposed to have two adult school staff members in the classroom all day.  With me gone Jake spent his day in the front office near The Big B.

Day Two - Tuesday

Today we began Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) testing for our scholars.  This is a reading test that is administered both at the beginning of the school year and the end of the school year.  Ideally a scholar should score higher on the year end test than the beginning of the year test.  BaseG takes the scholars one at a time to the school computer lab to administer the test and I stay in the classroom with the other scholars.  The first scholar headed to the computer lab at approximately 9:30am which in hind site was an error as Jake arrived at 10:00am with only me in the classroom.  What made this particularly stressful was the fact that the scholars were about to earn good behavior choice time on the computers.  When I told them they earned choice time they headed for the computers with Jake one of the first to arrive.  Now I have to make a decision about Jake remaining at the computer as he did not do any work to earn computer priviledges.  My memory bank opened reminding me that one of the most volatile eruptions Jake had when he was here at our school last year was over lost computer priviledges.  His eruption was so intense it was the only time I was concerned about my safety and recalled my training on where to position myself when dealing with aggressive scholars.  Knowing this I chose to let Jake stay at the computer for the safety of everyone in the room.  Jake had a good day so his first in the school room day was a success.

Day Three - Wednesday

SRI continues and today Jake takes the test.  As with the other scholars BaseG takes Jake to the computer lab and I stay in the room.  When BaseG and I are separated we use texting on our cell phones to communicate.  I know that is not the ideal situation but for us it works well and is quick.  I   always keep my cell in my pocket and on vibrate.  That works well while I'm seated.  Unfortunately   when BaseG sent his text message from the computer lab I was standing and didn't feel the vibration.  Unexpectedly Jake enters the room and I knew he was near an eruption.  His eyes were squinted nearly shut, his hands were closed into a fist and he looked very tense.  I immediately got all our   scholars attention and told them to leave the room quickly and go to our safe spot.  As the scholars  were leaving BaseG entered the room and said didn't you get my text message.  I take the cell phone  out of my pocket and the message read lock the door and don't let him in the room.  To late.    

Wednesday was Jake's last day in our classroom.  He is going to a status called homebound which  requires a teacher to go to his house after school hours and work with him.  From there he will go to a school for scholars with aggressive behavior issues.  To this day I wonder how such a young person could have so many different emotional issues and take such high doses of medication to control his anger.  Yes I said so many.  His issues are listed in his Individual Education Plan (IEP) and if you  saw them your reaction would be are you serious which is what I said.  On Thursday morning BaseG  and I talked about Jake and we both agreed we could have helped him.  At the same time we both knew that the most important consideration in the decision making process was the safety of our  scholars.  Going forth we know the right decision was made and Jake would be heading to his fifth school in two years.  Jake is in a tough situation and it makes me sad so I'm going to stop now and say a prayer for Jake.  I'm asking you to do the same and hopefully you will.