Sunday, March 29, 2020 a day of recognition for the Vietnam Veterans. Welcome home to all who served.
I wrote about this scholar in my last blog post. In fact, the entire post was about this scholar and all of the obstacles and drama that has gone on in his life between the first and sixth grade. At the end of the last blog post, I told you the scholar had returned to school after being going for a lengthy time due to a marijuana incident. Here is the rest of the story.
I was walking down the second floor hallway when I passed this scholar's teacher of record. "I haven't seen Tourette for a couple days," I said to the teacher. "He's gone, this time permanently," was the reply I received. "Are you serious, he's only been back a week or so." "He stole another scholars watch, he's gone." "Are you serious?" "Yes."
A scholar that Tourette knew has a close family member that likes to collect watches. This family member decided to give this scholar, a relative, a watch, one that was supposed to have the value of $800.00. The scholar, with the watch in his possession decided to show it to other students while at school. One of these students was Tourette. Please note, at this point, I ain't buying the $800.00 amount but that is what the scholar stated.
During a restroom break this scholar took off the watch and put it down on a counter. While sidetracked the watch came up missing. A teacher was informed and addressed the issue. One by one the students in the area were questioned about the watch and then asked to turn out their pockets. One by one each student was found to not have the watch. The final student, Tourette, was asked about the watch. He denied having it. The teacher then told him to turn out his pockets. He complied turning one pocket completely inside out but the other pocket only partially inside out. The teacher asked Tourette what was in his pocket. There was no response. The teacher took the watch out of his pocket. Given the multiple number of serious issues with Tourette, he was expelled.
Borrowing the title from a series of books written by Lemony Snicket's, I'm continuing with a Series of Unfortunate Events. As a reminder, I don't make this stuff up.
I believe this one took place during a morning community circle meeting where the scholars shared with their classmates what they did over the weekend. This is from a T4-F. "My uncle was drunk and he kept breaking things."
This one falls under the category of No Boundaries, No Consequences. A T4-M scholar insists that school rules don't apply to him as this incident has occurred a number of time. "You need to take that hoodie off and put it in your cubby (locker)." The request was repeated three times before the scholar moved. A short while later this scholar, one the half dozen that are constant disruptions, is told to be quiet. Upset with his teacher he stood up, went to his cubby, gets his hoodie out and put it back on. "Why did you do that?" he was asked. "Because I can." "Put it back in your cubby." "NO!"
You are officially forewarned. I've seen a lot of crazy things in my eight years at this school and for the most part, nothing bothered me, until this one. A conversation between three or four F's took place. This conversation was overhead by another scholar and reported to an adult. The gist of the conversation centered on bi-sexual activity and physically harming one's self. Because a scholar did the right thing and reported this incident to an adult all of the parties involved spent some time with our school social worker.
The events you are about to read took place in a matter of fifteen minutes, maybe less. One of the events is a continuation of what I just mentioned above. I'll start with this one. A fight erupted between students. The adult in the immediate vicinity was female, in the same age group that I'm in, and falls in the petite category. Then there is this one. This incident involved a scholar that had an arm injury that may have reached the level of broken. Last one. One of the scholars I just mentioned above was writing in a spiral notebook. When someone approached this scholar the notebook was immediately hidden. The notebook was taken from the scholar. The notes that were being written were on how to physically harm yourself, to do it fast, and pain free. This is one of those immediately, have a school social worker get involved, and do a risk assessment event. Our school social worker was not in the school. Because of the seriousness of this incident a nearby school was called for social worker assistance. This school sent the help that was needed. With the risk assessment completed this scholar was sent to a facility to get the help that was needed to address this serious behavior issues.
Three incidents in fifteen minutes or maybe less. During this time calls were made to school leadership for assistance with the incidents and then guidance on how to move forward. Leadership did not get involved. They were busy. They were in a meeting. They didn't want to be disturbed.
A text message poured in on Saturday March 28, 2020 at 3:08pm. I wanted to check on the health of my colleague who occupies the front of the classroom so I sent her a text message, "Please tell me you are healthy." She responded, "Yes....some sad news last night. M's parental unit passed away last night. M wasn't with there at the time but the parental unit fell victim to substance abuse." I responded back, "I'm at a loss for words. Once again, a kid, fourth grade, is having to face these nightmare situations. This is not the first of its kind at our school. I'm fearful that it is not the last."
On Thursday, March 22, 2020, the Governor of Indiana came on the air and announced that all schools in the state of Indiana are to close effective Friday, March 23, 2020. So, here I sit knowing that the earliest I will see T4 and our scholars is in the first week of May, 2020. Our spring break fell in this time frame, but still, that is twenty-four days of lost academics. There is no way that much lost academic time can be made up.
During all of these years at my school I viewed myself as an obstacle remover. If a teacher; BaseG, Gnu, Knewer, and now T4 ran into a bump in the road, I took it upon myself to remove that obstacle. About three weeks ago, a big obstacle jumped up in front of T4. Right now I can't figure out how to remove that obstacle and it troubles me deeply.
The social distancing guideline that we are to follow right now is pretty simple. Stay six feet apart or stay six feet under. It's your choice. Choose safety my friends.
