WaxOn speaking loudly and to no one in particular, "I'm going to beat up my teacher." His timing was terrible as Gnu was speaking to his parental unit on the telephone in the back of the room. The parental unit was the one who initiate this call. It arrived just as IvyL was beginning our morning group session. Although I wasn't part of the telephone conversation I could hear Gnu say a number of times "he's not in any trouble." Apparently the parental unit wasn't buying Gnu's statement that her scholar is not in trouble and continued to press the issue. At about this point, WaxOn realized who Gnu was talking to and started to get agitated. As Gnu continued to talk to the parental unit he shouted out, '"I'm going to beat up my teacher." Gnu promptly relays this statement to WaxOn's parental unit. When WaxOn loudly stated that he '"did not say that" Gnu's asks WaxOn's parental unit if she'd like to speak to him. She agrees and WaxOn is now speaking to his parental unit and denying everything. With our group session in progress Gnu moves to the front of the room to participate. When WaxOn finishes talking to his parental unit he wants to hand the telephone back to Gnu. Gnu says to him, "tell your parental unit that I can't talk right now and I'll call he later." WaxOn relays the information and then he looks at me and says his parental unit would like to talk to me. I look at Gnu, she shrugs her shoulders, so I take the phone and step out into the corridor. Like Gnu, I'm asked why WaxOn is always in trouble. I respond that he is not always in trouble. I further state that the students in our classroom are there because of behavior issues and at one time or another they have all made bad decisions. I continued by saying that just because they made a bad decision does not mean they are in trouble. I concluded by saying about the only way a scholar could get in serious trouble is if a scholar did something to intentionally hurt himself or hurt another scholar. As I expected, the parental unit brought up the "beat up my teacher" statement and I told her that WaxOn said it. She states that he told her he didn't say it. I respond by saying, IvyL, our behavior therapist, was sitting about three feet from him and I was within eight feet of him when he said it quite loudly and clearly. Although I'm standing outside the room I can see through the window that something is building as Grr! has left the group session and he has his mad look on and WaxOn is up and moving around the classroom. I inform WaxOn's parental unit that something is going on inside the classroom and that I needed to end the conversation and re-enter the classroom.
The threat to "beat up my teacher" was eventually relayed to the Big B. Then a telephone call was made to WaxOn's parental unit to come and pick him up for the remainder of the day. That was followed by a very animated conversation between the parental unit and the Big B. When Wednesday arrived, no WaxOn. It's the start of the day on Thursday and still no WaxOn. I'm standing next to BigJ, our in-school suspension person, while on bus duty and mention that WaxOn is missing. He responds that he is eighty percent certain that he is at another school. It's late in the day on Thursday and there is a telephone call for Gnu. The call was from a representative of a charter school requesting information about WaxOn. Gnu speaks to this representative for a few minutes and she is told how well WaxOn is behaving at his new school. The representative at this chart school states that his behavior is so good that if it continues this way the funding his parental unit receives because of his behavior issues will have to be discontinued. I'm fairly certain that if that happens there will be another very animated conversation involving the parental unit. It's now 3:00pm on Friday. Gnu has gathered all of the information requested by the charter school and I'm off to the fax machine. I insert the documents into the fax machine, dial the telephone number, hit the start button, the transmission runs it course and just like that the door revolves and WaxOn is gone.
It's mid-week and a teacher from our life skills classroom walks in about 3:50pm and sits at the front desk near Gnu. This teacher is a regular visitor to our room, especially at the end of the day. When he stepped into the room in the past he usually leaned on a cabinet right by the door and conversed with us. On this day he walked past me, sat down by Gnu, and I knew something was up. He begins by saying that he was at a case conference earlier regarding one of his scholars that needed to be assigned to a different classroom or even a different school. This scholar is either in the second or third grade and because of the changing population in the life skills classroom he is now a head and shoulders taller than his classmates. This size advantage, in combination with his anger control issues, is what caused the case conference to take place. Sadly, post case conference, there was some uncertainty as to where this scholar should be placed. As the life skills teacher continued to talk about the options that were available for this scholar Gnu and I made eye contact and it was clear to both of us that our classroom was going to the best case scenario for this scholar. Although our classroom may be the best case scenario there is a problem. Our classroom is for scholars with emotional handicaps and this scholar does not, at least on paper, fit that category. So what do we do?
As the conversation continued about this scholar I started to think about the challenges that he will bring. Unlike Gnu, I have a history that goes back at least two or maybe three years with this scholar. Unfortunately, this is not a good history. My first encounter with him was a couple years ago when he was temporarily placed in my classroom for the day as there was a substitute teacher in his classroom. That didn't work out very well as he managed to evade me and get out into the hallway. As I pursued him, he decided to exit the school and that is not good. As soon as he exited the school I pulled out my cellphone and called the front office for assistance. Unfortunately, the telephone rang at least thirty times without being answered. To say that I was not happy with this situation is an understatement. Luckily this ended well as the scholar walked back into the school by himself. So you know, life skills classrooms don't have a self contained time out room, they have self contained restroom, so when a scholar needs a time out she/he is brought down to our room. As it stands right now, this scholar that we are talking about has spent more time in our time out room than any other scholar that I've worked with. While in our time out room he has spewed forth some of the most inappropriate language that I've heard including the B-word, F-word, and the N-word. He is skilled at extending his middle finger and has determined that the best avenue for escape from our time out room is to take off his shoes and try to break the window with them.
So what do we do with a scholar that has the potential to seriously disrupt our classroom? Although I've said it a number of times in the past I'll say it again. I'm working with a great teacher. A loving and caring teacher who will, I'm certain, always do the right thing. So the next morning, at 10:20am the revolving door at the back of our classroom turns and in walks Buxton and he is placed in his assigned seat. Where in the room is this seat? Right next to me so he to can enjoy a wonder view from the back of the room.
It's been a interesting couple of weeks. I was invited by Oreo to be an interim bus captain during her absence. I was either voted on to or was selected to be on an advisory committee with the BigB where I'm the only male in the room. A sizeable chunk of money was made available to our school to increase the ratio of computers to scholars and I get to participate in discussions on how the money will be spent. Conversations have started regarding the teacher shortage and what to do about it. I watched the revolving door turn as WaxOn departed and Buxton arrived. And most importantly I fretted for the better part of an entire week about Gnu's continued involvement at this school. It's this last item that I'd like to elaborate on a little because it provided a special moment for me. On the day Gnu told me she wasn't leaving I felt relieved. Later that evening I received a rather lengthy text message from her. I won't tell you the content of the entire message, only the important part. The text message read, "I couldn't/wouldn't be able to do this without you in the classroom." The challenges of my job often leave me wondering why I keep doing this. A text message that contains only thirteen words is the reason I continue.
Thanks for continuing to follow a blog written by an old man who now shares his view from the back of the room with a scholar, with a totally fictitious named that I made up, called Buxton. That's it, I'm out.
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