One Scholar's Story

Sunday March 1, 2020

My first encounter with this scholar was in the school's main office and he was sitting outside  TheBigB#1's office.  That's not a good place for him to be so when I spoke to him I said, "Having a tough day?"  As I walked on past him he started so I turned around to look at him.  When he stopped he had put together one of the longest string of obscenities that I've ever heard and then finished it with a double flip off directed at me.  The next time I crossed paths with him he was outside a classroom on the first floor.  He was trying to hide behind his classroom door.  When I approached him he said something to me that I didn't understand so I asked him what he said.  His response to me was another string of obscenities with the F-Word being the most prevalent descriptive term.

Moving forward, this scholar was taken out of a General Education classroom is now in a Special Education classroom for scholars with an emotional handicap. Typical of a scholar in this type of classroom there were some really bad days but progress, with the help of Behavior Specialists and Behavior Therapists, was being made.  As this scholar's grade level increased he moved to his second Special Education classroom for students with an emotional handicap.  Again, there were some rough days but he continued progressing forward especially in controlling his anger.

Before I go any further here is a little background information on this scholar.  He comes from a broken family where the male parental unit was rarely around.  Issues that I'm not aware of had this scholar living with a relative that was not his original female parental unit.  The relative he was living with was elderly, currently needs a walker to move around, often struggled keeping a scholar with serious anger issues under control and I've seen her in sitting in our main office crying on the days when she was called to school to take her scholar home after serious anger outbursts.  Further complicating this scholar's life, his original female parental unit went into the hospital for surgery one day.  She did not make it.

Because of my familiarity with this scholar I knew about the following events that took place in his life.  Getting into fights on the playground during recess were frequent and often he lost his recess privileges and had to sit in the main office.  At one point this scholar disappeared for a weekend.  No one in his family knew his location.  There were discussions about putting out an Amber Alert when the scholar finally returned home on a Sunday late afternoon.  To this day no one knows for certain his location while missing.  All that is known is that two men in a car dropped him off at his home and drove away.  I was told by FBG, a Behavior Specialist, that this scholar had learned how to play chess.  While passing this scholars classroom one day I saw him playing chess with another scholar so I walked into the classroom to observe.  It didn't take me long to realize that he wasn't just moving pieces, he was moving them with a purpose.  Watching him playing chess had me thinking about how far this scholar had progressed and then the eruption came a few days later.  Paraphrasing, "I'm going to get my AK 47 and shoot this school up."  That cost him a couple of days and when he returned to school he continued on a positive track forward for quite some time.

It's now just a few days short of our winter break and an after school event was taking place that the scholar was attending.  In the midst of doing his best show and tell with some of the scholars attending the event he was found with enough marijuana in his possession to be considered a dealer.  He is now gone but where he went I wasn't sure.  I talked to this scholar's teacher of record trying to find out where he ended up.  "Home schooled," is the response I received.  "For how long," I asked.  "I'm not really sure."  Then the teacher of record told me this.  "He was doing so well in my classroom.  After our winter break he was going to transition into a General Education classroom full-time."  Moving from Special Education to General Education, especially on a full-time basis, is not the norm for Special Education scholars.  So, years ears of work put in by multiple teachers, instructional assistants, Behavior Specialist, and Behavior Therapists were all blown up after another poor decision while attending an after school event.

Every now and then I'd pass the scholar's teacher of record in the hallway just to get an update on this scholar.  The last time I did so I was told that a manifest (case conference) would take place to determine this scholar's future.  Knowing personally all of the adults in my school that are in the Special Education field, we would talk about this scholar's future.  We were in consensus.  This scholar needed to return to our school and not some alternative type of school.  The reason, because this scholar's entire support network is in this school and if he went elsewhere, in all likelihood, this scholar would regress into his former self.  None of us wanted that to happen as he had progressed so far since the first time I met him.

It's Ash Wednesday.  I'm sitting at my half round table in the hallway completing a math worksheet that our scholars will be working on in a few minutes.  As I'm was sitting there I saw the teacher of record walking toward me.  Immediately behind the teacher of record is the young scholar that I have been telling you about.  I called his name as he was approaching.  He walked over to me, we did a fist bump, I said, "Welcome back," he smiled at me and continued down the hallway to his General Education classroom.

You just read the story of one scholar.  A scholar that I met when he was in the first grade, probably seven years old.  He is now in the sixth grade and probably eleven years old.  What you just read took place over a five year period and I'm certain, like I am doing right now, you are just shaking your head.

A lot of negativity about one young scholar ending with a huge positive about this scholar is why I'm sitting here at this keyboard.  These are the stories I like to tell.  Hopefully, there will be a lot more of them.

Before I wrap this up I need to tell you about some upcoming role changes that will take place in what has been the most challenging classroom that I've been in over the past eight years.  T4 is stepping away from the front of the classroom.  I'll pause for a minute and let you think about that. She will be moving to the back of the room where she will have a similar view of the classroom that I enjoy.  Why?  For the next several weeks a student teacher will occupy the front of the classroom.  T4, speaking to me about the student teacher,  "I feel like I'll be feeding her to the wolves."