Chapter Twenty: Police State

Chapter 20: Police State

It is mid-September and we look more like a police station than a school. In the past 24 hours we’ve had three Baker Acts, seven arrests, one transfer to a boot camp and a surprise visit from The Boss.

I continue to explain to the Deputy of the Day my philosophy regarding arrests, which usually prompts him to explain his philosophy to me: these are bad kids, most will end up in prison. What they need is a good whuppin’. Kids who disrupt school need to be arrested.

“Disruption of school function” is the standard crime for which my students are arrested. It is a broad, general crime that could be applied to just about all of my students on any given day. And on this beautiful autumn day, I almost thought the dragnet would trap them all.

Cassandra, the foster child who was insulted by former teacher Tammie, is arrested for disruption of school function because she screamed and cursed at Noreen, her teacher, before running out of the classroom. The arrest may jeopardize her chances to return to her biological mother. Cassandra’s case worker tells me that Cassandra has been in foster homes since age four, but Mom has “worked the case plan,” meaning she has completed the necessary courses and met the requirements to get Cassandra back. In fact, she has already “won back” one of her thirteen children. The case worker confesses that Cassandra’s mother is very low functioning and regularly phones Cassandra to ask for help managing her money and bills. Cassandra is anxious to go back home. While I am not convinced Cassandra should be returned to her mother, I don’t want the process delayed by having her arrested. Alas, the deputy on duty beat me to Noreen’s classroom and of course Noreen made sure to charm and flirt with the deputy in the bus circle this morning so he is more than happy to help her out by making an arrest or two.

Luke, of hoop earring fame, is arrested for disruption of school function because he screamed and cursed in the classroom. This is not unusual, but today the Deputy happened to witness it.

DerMarr is arrested for disruption of school function because he refused to do any work and registered his protest loudly. In truth, we could do this with DerMarr daily. But today Stephanie’s emotional reaction guided the deputy’s decision.

It all began when shortly before lunch, Stephanie stormed out of the Orientation room and into my office, threw her keys and walkie-talkie across the room and screamed, “I quit.”

I felt this was probably not a good sign.

Lynne, my business manager, who is a close friend of Stephanie’s, ran after her. I headed to Stephanie’s Orientation room fearing another Tammie scene with a rioting, teacher-less class. Instead I found the Deputy had taken over the class and everyone was calm, except DerMarr. The Deputy was in the process of arresting DerMarr. He explained DerMarr was so disruptive Stephanie became hysterical. I take over the class until Lynne finishes counseling Stephanie. The Deputy takes away DerMarr.

Fifth grader DerMarr is a twelve-year-old black child who has been held back twice and is thus far larger than any of our elementary students. He is large and aggressive. Stephanie wants him out of Orientation but she is reluctant to move him since his behavior is so awful. He is the first child I am thinking about rejecting. We are spending a lot of time dealing with his misbehaviors and his irate mother.

DerMarr’s mother was in my office screaming at me on his first and second and third days of school. Each day we’ve had pretty much the same conversation. I tell DerMarr’s mother he needs to wear khaki or blue jean shorts or pants with a navy collared shirt. Mom tells me: “Nobody told me nothing ‘bout no uniform.” Mom threatens to withdraw DerMarr from Prospect. She was lied to. Nobody told her there was a dress code. She tells me she has no money to buy uniforms. I offer one of our Prospect shirts. Mom doesn’t want him in one of our “nasty” used shirts and she continues to send DerMarr in nothing close to our uniform: today he is wearing bright orange shorts and matching shirt with a large FUBU logo. I add to my to do list: Call Henry re: DerMarr’s mom.
More arrests…

Adoncia and Alexia/Pilar are arrested for disruption of school function for fighting on the bus and in particular, for using their belts as weapons. Their fighting started when the busses tried to leave for home, causing a major delay in our dismissal. The girls were screaming, flailing and not willing to listen to anyone. It was a struggle just to get them off the bus.

Torrey’s arrest provides the most excitement and drama. Torrey is the large white girl who likes to lift her shirt to show her breasts in public. Last school year Torrey accused her stepfather of sexual molestation. DCF didn’t believe her but they did place her in Cressler House, the children’s shelter. She hated it there and begged to come home. She did, but family relations were severely damaged. Torrey is one of our most difficult girls. She has already been arrested twice this school year: the first day for hitting Ionya and a few weeks later for the girl-bus-brawl. Her mother wants her sent to boot camp.

This morning the Deputy was going to arrest Torrey for theft: stealing candy from the teacher’s desk, having Adoncia as lookout and then telling the teacher Cassandra did it. Actually this happened yesterday. The Deputy gave Torrey 24 hours to return the candy and write an apology letter, but she didn’t, so this morning he was going to arrest her. Torrey tearfully promised to make everything right by dismissal. The Deputy agreed to cut her some slack. That was before the kickball game.

After lunch Neeley’s and Noreen’s classes came outside for their fifteen minutes of vigorous exercise. As the students began to divide into teams for kickball, Tayshaun, our football hero, walked onto the field with a towel around his neck. Torrey grabbed the towel and hit Tayshaun with it.

After Tayshaun is hit with his own towel, he takes the fuzzy orange kickball (designed to look like a huge tennis ball) and throws it in Torrey’s face. Torrey becomes very angry and screams that Tayshaun is attacking her. While Neeley and Noreen admonish Tayshaun, Torrey paces like a caged animal. Suddenly Torrey sprints to the fence that separates the play yard from the parking lot. Leaning over the fence, she overpowers a plastic, PVC, pipe. She snaps it off and runs toward Tayshaun brandishing the pipe as a weapon. The removal of the pipe causes an immediate and dramatic gusher of water to spray up from the ground at least four feet into the air. The other students screech and stampede, running to play in the water while Torrey tries to attack Tayshaun with the pipe. Torrey gains strength with her anger; it takes several adults to contain her while Tayshaun dances just out of reach taunting her. The Deputy arrives on the scene and handcuffs Torrey. She blubbers and cries saying she will pay for the damages but please don’t arrest her. The deputy takes Polaroid photos of the waterspout. A plumber is called to stop the geyser. Between Torrey’s previous arrests and this pipe incident, her mother may get her wish regarding boot camp.

Perry is arrested for bringing a knife to school. Perry is a white, nine year old boy in our elementary classroom. He is intelligent, likes to read and often when I observe his class, he will be the only one on task. While others are hopping around and making Midge’s head hurt, Perry is sitting quietly at his desk working his math problems. Perry explains he brought the knife to school because he is planning to knife Davey on the bus because Davey has his football. Davey does have Perry’s football but only because Perry traded it for Davey’s roller blades. Perry still has Davey’s roller blades but his stepmother doesn’t approve of the trade, won’t let him use them and has been trying to return them but Davey’s family doesn’t have a phone.

Perry’s stepmother, who legally adopted him, doesn’t know what to do with him. She asks to speak with me and gives me his background. Perry was raped by his cousin four years ago, when he was five. The two families were camping. He tried to tell his aunt and uncle but they sent him back into the tent with his rapist cousin. The next day the rapist cousin carried Perry into the lake by the campground and threatened to drown him if Perry ever told what happened. Perry is now very afraid of water and not too fond of men. Perry is desperate to carry a weapon (earlier this year he stole his grandfather’s loaded gun). To Perry the world is a very scary, dangerous place where adults won’t protect you. Perry’s biological mother no longer sees Perry; she was arrested for prostituting her daughter, Perry’s sister, Lara. Mom arranged for 13-year-old Lara to have sex with the landlord in exchange for free rent while they were living in Louisiana.

In addition to these arresting seven children today, we Baker Act Frankie, Ionya and Darrin.

Frankie

Frankie’s parents were both arrested recently. A neighbor took him in but tiny white, nine year old Frankie snuck out a bedroom window at night and ran away looking for his mother. The neighbor felt she wasn’t getting the support (i.e. money) she needed to deal with him so she turned him over to DCF and they put Frankie into Cressler House. Frankie should be taking medication for his hyperactivity and he has an abscessed tooth and spits blood during the day, but he isn’t getting his medication or any medical care for that matter. Today he tells his teacher, Midge, that he wants to put a gun in his mouth and blow his brains out. We Baker Act Frankie.

Ionya (again)

Ionya worked hard to get Tyisha to fight with her. Ionya threw pine needles, then rocks, then spit at Tyisha. Tyisha resisted the temptation to retaliate. I tell Ionya it looks to me like she wants someone to beat her up. She agrees “I want them to beat me up and kill me so I can be dead.” Ionya is Baker Acted again.

Darrin

Darrin is rare on our campus in that he is obese. He is here because he stole his mother’s medication and tried to sell it to kids at school. He says he did it so he could have friends and be popular. Darrin is never in trouble here at Prospect, the other students tease him mercilessly. He wrote a poem today about wanting to die and how he would not be alive tomorrow and how the other kids would be sorry they picked on him. He has tried suicide in the past. We Baker Act Darrin.

Grant me the serenity

Grant is a small, thin white boy who just turned eleven. He wishes he didn’t. The judge feels Grant is now old enough to serve his sentence for murder. When he was nine and his parents were still married, Grant was left alone at night while both his parents worked. Sometimes he was lonely, sometimes he was scared, so sometimes he had friends come over even though he wasn’t supposed to. One night a friend came over and the two boys started playing with a gun. Grant shot his friend. In an instant one life, one childhood and one marriage ended. Grant has no behavior or academic problems, but he is at Prospect because he is a felon and the public schools don’t want felons. Grant’s father phones me to say that Grant will be sent to his “program” any day, they don’t know when, but soon. Justice will be served?

In the midst of all the arresting and Baker Acting, The Boss decides to surprise me with his first visit to my campus. He spends most of the day standing on the ball field talking on his cell phone. I offer him a corner of my office but he says my portable doesn’t provide any privacy, so he takes and makes his many calls standing in the fenced corner of the play yard near the baseball diamond. Many of my teachers express frustration: they want The Boss to stop in their classrooms. Some are proud of their lessons and want to show off, others want him to see “what they have to put up with.” I try, in vain, to encourage The Boss to visit any classroom anytime. I give him a campus map and a copy of the school schedule. At the end of the day The Boss says he would like to speak with me.

Sitting in my portable, the Boss begins to shuffle and rearrange papers. When he looks up his eyes are cold and unrevealing. As I look I back at him I wonder: does The Boss see me as the enemy? Do I represent all those white, female teachers who tormented him through grade school and on into high school marking up his papers with red pen and giving him C’s when he felt he deserved A’s? Instead of seeing a dedicated principal does he see a representation of every teacher who “did him wrong?” Or worse, does he see me as the representation of white power and black oppression so rampant in this country but especially so here in Florida? And if The Boss does see me as the enemy, do I have the power to change this perception?

The Boss tells me he is very upset at what he has seen at my school. I assume he means the arrests and Baker Acts, but I am wrong. The Boss is upset with faculty attire. He feels the teachers are not dressed professionally. He points to Neeley who is wearing a t-shirt today. I promise to pay more attention to staff attire.

And when The Boss finally leaves I weep invisible tears for the children who left my school today not in a bus, not to go home, but in a squad car heading to jail, or to the mental health center or to boot camp. And I weep for a boss who doesn’t know or care this is the real problem, the real crime.