We Hit Rock Bottom

On Wednesday February 3, 2016 we bottomed out.

MiniJ has been grumpy for a couple days now.  I'm not sure what is going on but his anger or maybe his frustration has been growing.  It's early in the morning and he's off task when Gnu says to him, "you need to get started on your morning work."  "I'm not doing any morning work," he says in a bit of a defiant voice.  "You need to get started on your morning work.  If all you are going to do is disrupt the other scholars then get out of my classroom.  You can go sit in the corridor outside our classroom door," Gnu responds.  MiniJ is now standing up and kicks his chair and then his desk and in his best tough guy strut starts walking across the room.  It's at this point that I wish I could take a video and share it but that will not happen.  At best, I'll give you a description of the walk.  As he walks, his shoulders are rocking back and forth, at first his hands are in close to his body, fists clenched, but as he continues, his hands go up and he begins using his best tough guy hand gestures.  Unfortunately, mister tough guy uttered and obscenity as he walked past Gnu.  "That's it, you've been disrespectful to me all week, get yourself into the time out room and you can stay there until I let you out," Gnu says to him.  In less then 30 seconds he's in time out, the door is closed, and Gnu pushes on the button that engages the 1200 pounds of pressure magnet that holds the door closed.  I roll my chair over to the time out room, suggest to Gnu that we switch places so she can start the academic day and now I get to hold the button. 

As a reminder, overhead person speaking, "his (Prophet's) behavior has shown improvement so he'll be assigned to you classroom full time."  The mentor that is assigned to this scholar speaking, "you need to quit walking around the classroom and bothering the other scholars.  Sit at you desk and get to work."  The scholar ignores the mentor so the request is repeated, "you need to get to your desk and start your work."  The scholar's response, "I'm not doing any work so shut up B-word."  "That is not how you can talk to me so you need to go into the time out room for five minutes and get yourself settled down", says the mentor.  As the mentor approaches the scholar he puts up a fist and makes an attempt to hit the mentor but the mentor is took close to the scholar.  In a matter of seconds the scholar, who has shown such an improvement in his behavior, is in the time out room for five minutes.

It's now around 11:25am and ShortTime's ADHD (attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder) is kicking  into full gear.  He has his hoodie and backpack on and insists that he is going to lunch prior to his leaving for home at 12:00 noon.  Unfortunately, his telling time skills malfunctioned as he doesn't leave for lunch until 11:45am.  Gnu asks him to take off the backpack and hoodie and sit down as it is not lunch time.  He ignores the first request.  He ignores the second request as his ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) is kicking in.  After a third request Gnu's patients it at an end.  "Remove you backpack and hoodie and get to work or you can spend the rest of your morning in the time out room."  Still defiant so Gnu directs him, without incident, to the time out room with me following.  When she releases him in the time out room and starts to back out of the room he moves quickly directly at her.  I react, step in front of Gnu and he backs up.  When ShortTimes's lunch period nears I open the door to the time out room and he calmly walks toward classroom door.  As he exits the classroom he slams the door so hard that I'm surprised the glass didn't break.  Because ShortTime is in a special education classroom an adult (that would be me) has to sit with him when he eats so I follow him to the cafeteria.  With his food tray in his hand he moves to his assigned table and sits down.  I also sit at the same table.  As I sit down he says to me," I grabbed an extra vegetable tray and some hummus would you like to eat it?"  I agree and ShortTime's day ends peacefully and I get to eat a snack.

It's 12:05pm, overhead person speaking, "his behavior has shown improvement so he'll be assigned to your classroom fulltime."  When I walk into the classroom after taking ShortTime to lunch the mentor is sitting outside the time out room with her hand on the button for the magnet.  The scholar is again in the time out room for knocking books on the floor and inappropriate language and all of this happened again because he is not going to do what he it told to do.

It's now 12:45pm and recess and lunch are over.  Overhead person speaking, "his behavior has shown improvement so he'll be assigned to your classroom full time."  Gnu returns to the classroom first and she has the scholar by the arm.  I recognize what is happening and walk over to the time out room and open the door.  Gnu moves him into the time out room and as she is backing out I step into the room as a precaution.  Gnu speaking to me, "after recess he refused to come back into the school.  He just kept running around our playground avoiding any adult until he was finally cornered and during lunch, for no reason at all, he hit MiniJ." 

It's now around 2:05pm and it's a challenge to get the scholars focused on academics.  I'm not sure what happened because I was working with Grr! at the back table but MiniJ left his seat and crawled under Gnu's desk at the front of the classroom.  When I get Gnu's attention and point to MiniJ she responds, "he's fine right there.  The room is too noisy and he is seeking a quiet, safe place to get away from everything."  MiniJ has done this before so I refocus on academics with Grr!.  Overhead person speaking, "his behavior has improved so he'll be assigned to your classroom fulltime."  The scholar sees MiniJ under Gnu's desk and gets down on his hands and knees to look at MiniJ.  Gnu tells him to move away from MiniJ.  The scholar, rather than moving away, decides to poke MiniJ with the pointed end of a pencil.  Within another thirty seconds the scholar is in the time out room where he will stay until his departure time at 2:30pm.

It's 2:30pm and I open the door to the quiet room.  The scholar leaves with Gnu and the mentor and is heading to the bus that will take him home.  Overhead person speaking, "his behavior has improved so he'll be assigned to your classroom full time."  It's approximately 2:40pm and Gnu returns with the scholar with the assistance of another classroom teacher and I open the door to the time out room.  Gnu speaking, "he got on the bus peacefully but as soon as the bus driver closed the door he erupted so the bus driver opened the door and said to me 'remove him from the bus as I'm not dealing with this again,' so he will stay with us in the time out room until his parental unit can come and get him."  It's approximately 3:30pm and the scholar's parental unit has arrived so I open the door to the time out room and let him out and he departs for the day.

It's around 4:00pm and the scholars have left for the day.  I'm straightening out the classroom as the day is over and Gnu has not returned from bus duty yet.  When she walks into the classroom she looks completely drained and appears to have aged a number of years.  "We can't continue to have days like this," she says to me.  "I was hit in the mouth today, by accident, but this can't continue."  I don't have a response.  I don't even default to the standard, tomorrow will be a better day.  I just remain silent.

I've been in this classroom for just over three and a half school years.  Never, and I repeat never, have I had to use the time out room seven times in one day.  Never, and I repeat never, have I had to assist with placing the same scholar in the time out room four times in one day.  Overhead person speaking.......

It's now Thursday morning and I haven't even left for school when my phone beeps and there is a text message.  "I'm very sick, I'm way behind schedule, hopefully I can arrive before you go to bus duty."  We hit rock bottom on Wednesday but as you just read, Thursday isn't starting well and I'll give you a hint, we are moving toward a subterranean level.  Adding Thursday's events to what I just wrote about will make this a pretty lengthy blog so under the advisement of my part time editor, part time consultant and full time spouse, I'm going to stop now.

It's Super Bowl Sunday.  Do I have a preferred favorite?  Yes!  It's 0-2 and 9-1.  Beyond these two number combinations, I really don't care who wins.  Hmmm!  I wonder if I have to explain those two number combinations to as far west as Utah?  I'm out.  No, I'm not as I forgot something.  For the first time since mid October of last year we have a behavior therapist.  I'll refer to this person as PhD(?)Pete.  Now I'll wait and see if PhD(?)Sparty can figure that out.  Now I'm out for sure.  Bye!