I Just Don't Get It

I think I'll start with a little politics, actually as little politics as possible, more along the lines of dictionary trivia that mentions politics.  The word of the year from Oxford Dictionaries is post-truth politics. Here is the definition, belonging to a time in which the truth has become irrelevant.  Given what just happened in our presidential election, I think the dictionary people nailed it. 

Ok, where to begin as it was a strange week.  I going to start with school transportation; buses, cars, and walkers.  I have bus duty every morning and for the most part bus issues have been minimal.  Well, except for one and I'll get to it later.  The walkers rarely have any issues but the car riders more that make up for the non-existent walker issues.  I'll give you two examples of what teachers and other adults face while on car rider detail.  Here is the first one and it came to my attention via an email message.  To all staff, please be advised that Scholar A will be going home with Parental Unit #1.  This is a change as Scholar A has been going home with Parental Unit #2 but that has changed and may change again as who has custody of Scholar A is being contested in court.  So, before Scholar A gets into a car please be sure that Scholar A is going home with the correct parental unit.  Here is the second one and it also came to my attention via an email message.  To all staff, please be aware that our school records indicate that Scholar B has three adults listed as emergency contacts and here are their names: Adult #1, Adult #2, and Adult #3.  Please be very careful when a car arrives to pick up Scholar B at the end of the day.  If you have any uncertainty as to who the driver of the car is, please ask for identification so Scholar B does not get in the car with the wrong person.  Imagine being an adult at end of the day with car rider line duty.  All you want to do is see the little scholars get in a car and go home so you can go home.   But no, you now have the added responsibility of a security guard checking ID's before the scholars can even get in a car.  One more item and this one should be interesting given the recent rhetoric of our two political parties during the latest election. Again, it came as an email message.  To all staff, please be advised that we have a new scholar starting today.  This scholar will be in Room #1.  Also be advised that our new scholar has a brother in our school that has been with us for a while and is in Room #2.  So that everyone is aware, our new scholar that will be in Room #1 just arrived from a foreign country and does not speak a word of English.  Later that day I had a chance to talk to our school administrative czar about our new non-English speaking scholar.  I had just one question for our administrative czar, how much advance notice did the school receive that this scholar will be in our school?  The response was one word, none.  I will now move on as no matter what side I take, someone will be mad at me.

As of today, our scholars and their parental unit(s) have available to them a psychologist, two social workers, a behavior specialist, as well as four behavior therapists.  The scholars and their parental unit(s) also have access to child advocates and various social services agencies.  With the exception of the social services agencies, I believe the scholars and their parental unit(s) have access to some of the finest individuals to support them as they work their way through our school.  Unfortunately, it's the social services agencies that can literally suck the energy out of Gnu and drive me to the point that I would like to walk into our padded wall time out room and just start banging on the walls. 

I first met Tourette when he was in the first grade.  Prior to meeting him, he was trashing his classroom and his teacher called me to help remove him from her classroom.  When I arrived he was in the hallway and was trying to hide behind the classroom door.  When I saw him I stopped, put my foot against the door so he couldn't slam it shut and them blocked his passage way so he couldn't run away from me.  When I spoke to him he immediately went into an obscenity laced tirade that ended with him flipping me off.  During the next school year, the second grade, I didn't have to respond very often to Tourette's anger explosions as our behavior specialist was tasked with working with him.  Although I wasn't around Tourette very often there was one encounter with him that I'll remember for a long time.  Before I go any farther, as a reminder, I don't make this stuff up.  I was walking through our main office area and when doing so I have a choice of routes.  I can cut through the teacher lounge/copy center/junk room or I can follow the hallway.  On this day I chose the hallway.  If I chose the other route, what you are about to read would not have happened.  As I was walking past the BigB's office Tourette was sitting in a chair outside the office.  As I walked past him I said, "good morning."  The response I got was, "shut the f.... up."  As I continued past him I said to him, "maybe tomorrow will be a better day."  That was met with another obscenity laced tirade.  Possibly one of the longest ones I've ever heard in my life.  When I turned around to look at him, he stood up, turned in my direction, and gave me the double flip off.

Gnu speaking, "Schultz, just so you know, Tourette will be in our classroom (third grade) this year.  He will arrive on a bus at the start of the day but will only be in our classroom until 1:00pm.  At 1:00pm, his day is over and a bus will pick him up and take him home."  Anytime we get a new scholar Gnu informs me about the scholar's issues and often we will also take about the scholars parental units.  Like just about every scholar I worked with, their problems start at home as they are products of piss poor parenting.  In this case, the parental units have certain dependencies.  When Tourette joined us, his parental units had lost custody and he was living with another adult parental unit of the immediate family.  Although Tourette's situation improved, the improvement was minor and he eventually ended up in foster care.  It was during his stay in a foster home that Gnu began to see improvements in Tourette's behavior at school as he now appeared to be in a structured setting and was taking his medication daily.  With some behavior progress being made Gnu began talking about extended Tourette's school day but then it happened, a social services agency decided it was time for Tourette to return to his parental units home.  It was only a couple days and all the progress made while in a foster home started to deteriorate.  Gnu recognized it first, Tourette was not taking his medication.  When asked about it he'd say, "I forget to take it," or "I'm out of medicine."  Tourette's first eruption occurred on the bus coming to school.  Something caused his anger to erupt as he directed an obscenity laced tirade at another student on the bus.  The bus monitor, in an attempt to get him settled down, got kicked in the shin by Tourette.  Tourette's punishment for kicking an adult, none that I'm aware of.  The very next day, another bus incident.  This time when Tourette erupted he started choking another student.  Fortunately, the bus monitor stopped him from causing any harm.  This incident cost Tourette a two day suspension.

For two days our classroom was quiet as Tourette was gone.  There was one minor incident with him but it had to do with him coming to school to just hang out on the school play ground.  When he was seen, he was told he couldn't be on the playground and was told to go home.  Later that day the school called Tourette's parental unit to inform this person that Tourette could not come to school and play on the school's playground.  This parental unit informed the school that Tourette was not on the school's property.  After the two day suspension Tourette returned.  He made it through the first day and left at 1:00pm for home.  A short while later the BigB2 saw Tourette on the playground again and asked him to leave.  Again, a call was made home and again the parental unit claimed Tourette was not on the playground.  At this point the BigB2 said something about taking his picture the next time this happens.  Sadly, it only took a short period of time.  I was sitting in the back of the room during our math block when a custodian quickly opened the classroom door and said to me, "Mr. Schultz, you are needed in the Prekindergarten room right away.  Given the tone of the custodians voice, I was up and moving quickly.  When I arrived at the Prekindergarten area I was told that I should continue down the corridor and exit the building.  When I walked out the door, there was Tourette in a full blown anger eruption.  The BigB2 was nearby, so was one of our behavior therapists, and a female person that I didn't recognize.  As I was observing and not certain of my role I walked over to the BigB2 and said, "let me know what I need to do," and then, "who is that adult?"  The BigB2 informed me that the adult was a friend of Tourette's family and right now I was to do nothing as Tourette was not in school.  When I turned around, this friend of the family had Tourette on the ground and was straddling him trying to get him to calm down.  This only caused Tourette's anger to escalate.  Finally, the behavior therapist asked the friend of the family to get off of Tourette as that might get him to settle down.  As soon as he was able to get up, Tourette got up, grabbed his bicycle and sped away from school.  Although I was not there to see it, Tourette returned to school for a third time on this day.  Not being there I don't know what happened but whatever Tourette did this time resulted in him getting a three day suspension. 

Tourette's three day suspension is over.  It's Friday and he is expected back in the classroom but he doesn't show up.  Gnu makes some enquiries and tells me later in the day that Tourette has been removed from the custody of his parental units again.  As of right now the social services agency is trying to locate a foster home for him but without any success.  So, as of right now, Gnu has no idea where Tourette is and has no idea when he will return to our school.

God, this is so frustrating.  Why did the social services agencies put Tourette back into such a poor home environment?  I don't understand it.  He was placed in a foster home where he had a structured life, was taking his medication daily, was showing progress in school, and then BOOM, he is returned to his totally dysfunctional parental units.  I don't get it and you know what's really sad, you just heard about Tourette.  The same situation has occurred with other scholars in our school.  Sadly, with several other scholars.  I work in this wonderful school that is staffed with professionals trained to provide the best service possible to scholars like Tourette and then a social services agency steps in and disrupts all of the good that is going on.  I don't get it.  I just don't get it.

There are other things to talk about but I'm stopping as this blog post is too long.  Gnu and I will only be on the classroom for two days next week as the Thanksgiving holiday is quickly approaching.  I just might get a sudden burst of energy and post another blog on Wednesday.  To quote a good friend of mine who leads a cycling class that I attend at the local Y, "with that said," I'm out.