Chapter 54: Based on the Book
When Dana, the Title One Reading teacher, was hired, I shared with her my vision of the entire school reading one book. She recommended Holes, so we used Title One funds to buy over 200 copies of the book so every student, teacher, counselor, bus driver – everybody - could read the same book and talk about it. Dana made a great choice. The book is a big hit with everyone and better yet, the movie is about to be released. In early May we announce that in two weeks all students who haven’t had a major recent misbehavior will go see a matinee of Holes. My desk is piled high with permission slips and envelopes stuffed with $5 for the movie and $5 for popcorn and soda. We pick up the tab for children without money but most manage to find the funds. For two weeks we have almost no behavior problems but on the big day we send an extra bus for any children who misbehave and need to be removed from the theatre. The campus is quiet with only the newest and naughtiest students left behind.
When the movie goers return Shasta reports only one incident: Odis a black fourteen-year-old boy who has been romantically linked to many of our female students and who not only lost the privilege of attending the movie but also was absent from school today, (his Mom called saying he had a fever) showed up at the theatre. His mother dropped him off! The staff had wisely separated girls and boys so there would be no issues in the darkened theatre, but Odis snuck in late and found his way to a seat between Nishonda and Estralitta. Shasta caught him lip to lip with Estralitta and while she wanted to toss him out of the theatre, she wasn’t sure she could legally do that, so she moved him to sit with the boys and there were no further incidents. She said when the busses left, Odis was standing outside the theatre waiting for his mother to pick him up. On a lark I phone his mother to both question her and report the incident. Yes she knew he lost the privilege of attending the movie but she has the right to take him to any movie any time and since he was feeling better, she did. She didn’t know about the kissing and she’ll talk to him….
As the movie goers got off the busses they were bubbling with enthusiasm. Many thank me and several talk about how the movie wasn’t the same as the book - or at least they pictured it differently. For many of my students this was the first time they had read a book and then been to the movie…. The whole adventure is so positive (despite Odis) that we brainstorm how to incorporate this into the curriculum more often next year.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Chapter Fifty-Three: Parents say the Darndest Things
Chapter 53: Parents Say the Darndest Things
TobyBeth’s father phoned Henry, my public school liaison directly, totally bypassing me. And frankly, that really is okay.
TobyBeth’s father ran into former counselor Ernie in Winn Dixie and Ernie told him to hurry and get TobyBeth out of Prospect before she “gets ruined for life.” Good old Ernie. TobyBeth is a very troubled girl. Between the internet sexual predator and the death of her best friend last year, her suicide ideation and depression this year, having her father bounce her in and out of Prospect and Public school for over three years and all the while growing up in a home with two illiterate and racist parents, TobyBeth could already be said to be “ruined.”
A meeting is scheduled with TobyBeth’s father, Henry and me.
Henry arrives early. We converse easily, enjoying each other’s company. We talk about running, his children and the weather in upstate New York. Neither of us is aware of any specific problems TobyBeth’s father is having with Prospect but we both know TobyBeth’s forays to public school have always ended badly. Our goal for this meeting then is to avoid another unsuccessful and unproductive transfer of TobyBeth to public school. My overriding concern is the emotional and academic damage these school transfers do to TobyBeth. Henry seems primarily worried about the impact on the students and staff in the public school to which TobyBeth is transferring, along with the requisite bureaucratic paperwork associated with such transfers. I don’t linger over these different motivations thinking that as long as Henry and I both share the same goal, I am ready to face TobyBeth’s father. But Henry’s priorities regarding Prospect children keep widening the gap between us.
TobyBeth’s father arrives late and starts the conversation by accusing “that black boy” (Kembrall) of sexually harassing TobyBeth. He is recycling an old accusation, one we investigated months ago, along with the Deputy. Although we found no proof, because there was doubt we moved Kembrall to another class and we’ve been doing our best to make sure TobyBeth and Kembrall are kept apart. I question TobyBeth’s father to determine if there are any new allegations, but he is on a roll and won’t let his monologue get sidetracked by facts.
TobyBeth’s father gets very worked up and loudly proclaims: “I don’t want nobody touching her titties and pussy.” He repeats this statement three times before concluding by striking his fist on my desk for emphasis: “Even I don’t touch her titties and pussy.”
I take detailed notes both for my records and in an effort to keep my face expressionless. I work hard not to make eye contact with Henry during the meeting. At some point Henry must have decided he wanted to end this meeting quickly and that it wasn’t worth arguing about why Prospect is the right place for TobyBeth. So when TobyBeth’s father finally pauses, Henry suggests since TobyBeth’s father is so unhappy with Prospect, he return TobyBeth to public school. TobyBeth’s father is surprised at this response and leaves saying he’ll ask TobyBeth what she wants.
I feel conflicted by this outcome. On one hand it is definitely a relief not to prolong this meeting with TobyBeth’s father. But if TobyBeth is transferred to public school, yet again, it will not help her. I am disappointed in Henry for surrendering so easily, for giving up on TobyBeth without a fight.
After TobyBeth’s father departs, Henry and I both have to confirm we heard correctly. We agree that TobyBeth’s father’s statement: “Even I don’t touch her titties and pussy” is a shoe-in to win Prospect Quotation of the Year. Henry asks about the Kembrall investigation and recommends, if we have any doubt about Kembrall’s guilt, we transfer him to ESAK where he’ll be with high schoolers and won’t have the opportunity to prey on younger girls. I agree and make a phone call to Rocky at ESAK to get the transfer procedure started.
Goodbye Kembrall.
TobyBeth’s father phoned Henry, my public school liaison directly, totally bypassing me. And frankly, that really is okay.
TobyBeth’s father ran into former counselor Ernie in Winn Dixie and Ernie told him to hurry and get TobyBeth out of Prospect before she “gets ruined for life.” Good old Ernie. TobyBeth is a very troubled girl. Between the internet sexual predator and the death of her best friend last year, her suicide ideation and depression this year, having her father bounce her in and out of Prospect and Public school for over three years and all the while growing up in a home with two illiterate and racist parents, TobyBeth could already be said to be “ruined.”
A meeting is scheduled with TobyBeth’s father, Henry and me.
Henry arrives early. We converse easily, enjoying each other’s company. We talk about running, his children and the weather in upstate New York. Neither of us is aware of any specific problems TobyBeth’s father is having with Prospect but we both know TobyBeth’s forays to public school have always ended badly. Our goal for this meeting then is to avoid another unsuccessful and unproductive transfer of TobyBeth to public school. My overriding concern is the emotional and academic damage these school transfers do to TobyBeth. Henry seems primarily worried about the impact on the students and staff in the public school to which TobyBeth is transferring, along with the requisite bureaucratic paperwork associated with such transfers. I don’t linger over these different motivations thinking that as long as Henry and I both share the same goal, I am ready to face TobyBeth’s father. But Henry’s priorities regarding Prospect children keep widening the gap between us.
TobyBeth’s father arrives late and starts the conversation by accusing “that black boy” (Kembrall) of sexually harassing TobyBeth. He is recycling an old accusation, one we investigated months ago, along with the Deputy. Although we found no proof, because there was doubt we moved Kembrall to another class and we’ve been doing our best to make sure TobyBeth and Kembrall are kept apart. I question TobyBeth’s father to determine if there are any new allegations, but he is on a roll and won’t let his monologue get sidetracked by facts.
TobyBeth’s father gets very worked up and loudly proclaims: “I don’t want nobody touching her titties and pussy.” He repeats this statement three times before concluding by striking his fist on my desk for emphasis: “Even I don’t touch her titties and pussy.”
I take detailed notes both for my records and in an effort to keep my face expressionless. I work hard not to make eye contact with Henry during the meeting. At some point Henry must have decided he wanted to end this meeting quickly and that it wasn’t worth arguing about why Prospect is the right place for TobyBeth. So when TobyBeth’s father finally pauses, Henry suggests since TobyBeth’s father is so unhappy with Prospect, he return TobyBeth to public school. TobyBeth’s father is surprised at this response and leaves saying he’ll ask TobyBeth what she wants.
I feel conflicted by this outcome. On one hand it is definitely a relief not to prolong this meeting with TobyBeth’s father. But if TobyBeth is transferred to public school, yet again, it will not help her. I am disappointed in Henry for surrendering so easily, for giving up on TobyBeth without a fight.
After TobyBeth’s father departs, Henry and I both have to confirm we heard correctly. We agree that TobyBeth’s father’s statement: “Even I don’t touch her titties and pussy” is a shoe-in to win Prospect Quotation of the Year. Henry asks about the Kembrall investigation and recommends, if we have any doubt about Kembrall’s guilt, we transfer him to ESAK where he’ll be with high schoolers and won’t have the opportunity to prey on younger girls. I agree and make a phone call to Rocky at ESAK to get the transfer procedure started.
Goodbye Kembrall.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Chapter Fifty-Two - The Price of Bonding
Chapter 52: TMI - The Price of Bonding
In an effort to start our April in-service day with a positive, team bonding activity, I schedule an all-staff breakfast at Costello’s restaurant. Everyone seems pretty happy with the biscuits, orange buns (Costello’s signature dish), grits, sausages and eggs. The Mime sits between me and Dana, my Title One Reading teacher. The Mime is very animated and starts to talk, unprovoked, about her past. It seems before she was a Mime she traveled across Asia hitchhiking, stowing away on trains and smoking hashish. After she was a Mime she worked for the Mafia laundering money and then worked as a stripper and lap dancer. It is unclear why The Mime has chosen now (or ever) to share this with us. It is sort of freaking Dana out and she keeps trying to change the subject. Knowing the Mime has three sons she tries to ask about the boys, but the Mime is determined to detail her sordid past.
I walk around to mingle, trying to stop at each table long enough to express my thanks for everyone’s hard work. As I circulate I notice all the bus drivers are sitting together at the same table. I had asked transportation coordinator Shasta to have the drivers try to sit with teachers to help develop a rapport, but either she didn’t tell them or they ignored her. The bus drivers also ignored the “mini menu” we arranged with Costellos to save on costs. The drivers scooped up regular menus and ordered from them. Oh well, since they segregated themselves at one table, the rest of the faculty is unaware.
At another table, Stone and PE teacher Billie are whispering conspiratorially. They keep glancing up to see who is observing them. When I approach they stop abruptly and physically separate, moving their chairs apart. I have a hunch this is not good but I am having enough trouble with problems I can see without worrying about possible unhatched plots.
When I stop by the table with the Wrestler he motions for me to sit next to him. While everyone else has ordered a substantial hot breakfast (the drivers more substantial than the rest), the Wrestler has only a glass of milk and a small box of Special K in front of him. Maybe he needs to lose weight for an upcoming match. I think about asking him, but he speaks before I can form the question. In a voice so quiet I strain to hear him, The Wrestler tells me he has accepted another job at an aircraft manufacturing plant and he has to start in a week. He keeps apologizing. I ask whether he can postpone his start date. No he can’t, in fact after breakfast he won’t be able to return with us to Prospect, he has to fill out paperwork for his new job. It will pay him twice what he makes now, he says, but his parents are still mad at him for quitting. They feel he ought to finish out the year. I agree with his parents but don’t say as much – what’s the point?
RitaMae asks me whether I noticed two staff members are missing: Neeley and Buffy. Before I can respond, she launches into the gossip.
After the students left yesterday, Neeley and Buffy went joy riding in The Forest in Neeley’s new 4-wheel drive pick up truck and it got dark and Neeley accidentally drove into a lake and the truck got stuck in the mud and they got out to survey the situation and out of the mist, several Rainbow people materialized and one, a woman, was topless and Neeley and Buffy got freaked out by the them (the Rainbow People) and returned to the cab of the truck where they spent the night, and this morning they walked three miles to a Kwik King gas station where the clerk told them how to get in touch with a guy with a tow truck and the guy towed them out and they are heading back to Prospect now and Neeley took photos because he knew I would never believe this story although he did try to phone me but there was no cell service in The Forest and it is all kind of ironic since Buffy has been stalking Neeley for weeks wanting to sleep with him ever since he slept with her after the Christmas party when he was so drunk, which he regrets but she won’t forget.
When I return to my table Dana throws me a glance that tells me The Mime is still going strong. As I sit down I hear about how The Mime spent last weekend – having sex on the floor of Stephanie’s kitchen with a guy she met at a bar. I am thrilled when I look at my watch and realize it is time to return to Prospect and get to work.
Before we leave Costellos I take a group photo to commemorate the occasion.
In an effort to start our April in-service day with a positive, team bonding activity, I schedule an all-staff breakfast at Costello’s restaurant. Everyone seems pretty happy with the biscuits, orange buns (Costello’s signature dish), grits, sausages and eggs. The Mime sits between me and Dana, my Title One Reading teacher. The Mime is very animated and starts to talk, unprovoked, about her past. It seems before she was a Mime she traveled across Asia hitchhiking, stowing away on trains and smoking hashish. After she was a Mime she worked for the Mafia laundering money and then worked as a stripper and lap dancer. It is unclear why The Mime has chosen now (or ever) to share this with us. It is sort of freaking Dana out and she keeps trying to change the subject. Knowing the Mime has three sons she tries to ask about the boys, but the Mime is determined to detail her sordid past.
I walk around to mingle, trying to stop at each table long enough to express my thanks for everyone’s hard work. As I circulate I notice all the bus drivers are sitting together at the same table. I had asked transportation coordinator Shasta to have the drivers try to sit with teachers to help develop a rapport, but either she didn’t tell them or they ignored her. The bus drivers also ignored the “mini menu” we arranged with Costellos to save on costs. The drivers scooped up regular menus and ordered from them. Oh well, since they segregated themselves at one table, the rest of the faculty is unaware.
At another table, Stone and PE teacher Billie are whispering conspiratorially. They keep glancing up to see who is observing them. When I approach they stop abruptly and physically separate, moving their chairs apart. I have a hunch this is not good but I am having enough trouble with problems I can see without worrying about possible unhatched plots.
When I stop by the table with the Wrestler he motions for me to sit next to him. While everyone else has ordered a substantial hot breakfast (the drivers more substantial than the rest), the Wrestler has only a glass of milk and a small box of Special K in front of him. Maybe he needs to lose weight for an upcoming match. I think about asking him, but he speaks before I can form the question. In a voice so quiet I strain to hear him, The Wrestler tells me he has accepted another job at an aircraft manufacturing plant and he has to start in a week. He keeps apologizing. I ask whether he can postpone his start date. No he can’t, in fact after breakfast he won’t be able to return with us to Prospect, he has to fill out paperwork for his new job. It will pay him twice what he makes now, he says, but his parents are still mad at him for quitting. They feel he ought to finish out the year. I agree with his parents but don’t say as much – what’s the point?
RitaMae asks me whether I noticed two staff members are missing: Neeley and Buffy. Before I can respond, she launches into the gossip.
After the students left yesterday, Neeley and Buffy went joy riding in The Forest in Neeley’s new 4-wheel drive pick up truck and it got dark and Neeley accidentally drove into a lake and the truck got stuck in the mud and they got out to survey the situation and out of the mist, several Rainbow people materialized and one, a woman, was topless and Neeley and Buffy got freaked out by the them (the Rainbow People) and returned to the cab of the truck where they spent the night, and this morning they walked three miles to a Kwik King gas station where the clerk told them how to get in touch with a guy with a tow truck and the guy towed them out and they are heading back to Prospect now and Neeley took photos because he knew I would never believe this story although he did try to phone me but there was no cell service in The Forest and it is all kind of ironic since Buffy has been stalking Neeley for weeks wanting to sleep with him ever since he slept with her after the Christmas party when he was so drunk, which he regrets but she won’t forget.
When I return to my table Dana throws me a glance that tells me The Mime is still going strong. As I sit down I hear about how The Mime spent last weekend – having sex on the floor of Stephanie’s kitchen with a guy she met at a bar. I am thrilled when I look at my watch and realize it is time to return to Prospect and get to work.
Before we leave Costellos I take a group photo to commemorate the occasion.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Chapter Fifty-One: Another Brick in the Wall
Section V: Spring & Summer 2003 - the fourth academic quarter
Chapter 51: Another Brick in the Wall
It really is disheartening. Here we are in the fourth quarter of the academic calendar and some key policies and procedures I put into place nearly a year ago still don’t run smoothly, despite having discussed, revisited and reconfigured them with the team during the subsequent months. These include (but are not limited to): teachers writing notes in planners, bus departure and the ever-contentious Activity Period. In the case of Activity Period, I suppose I’ve scored a minor victory: my faculty now recognizes the benefits of Activity Period and, while saying they are enthusiastic might be overstating their feelings, they are supportive. Recent additions include a “Golf Club” run by new teacher Theo, which is inspiring over a dozen children to become Tiger Woods, and Jordan’s very popular Auto Mechanics club. Even Stone is on board, he sent home permission slips last week so he can take his fishing club on their first field trip to actually go fishing (usually they watch videos and engage in fish tales). But despite all this positive energy, Activity Period remains a source of angst.
As teachers recognize the value students place on Activity Period, they want to use it as a privilege that must be earned, or more accurately, can be lost. They feel students who have misbehaved during the day should not be allowed to participate in Activity Period at the end of the day. When we discuss this in our weekly meeting, I express my philosophy that Activity Period should be treated like any other class, but my staff is adamantly opposed, flinging around phrases like “entitlement mentality” and “rewarding misbehavior.” My staff views Activity Period as a rare “carrot” in a world of ineffective “sticks.” Prospect students are mostly unfazed by threats to remove them from class, call their parents or suspend them. But they sure don’t want to miss Activity Period. I surrender to the majority and don’t press my views, although in retrospect, things might have gone better if I had –in fact it would have been hard for things to have been worse, but hindsight makes the muddiest waters clear.
I wonder, is this a recurring theme of my tenure at Prospect? As a leader do I lack the backbone to make hard and unpopular decisions? Perhaps my search for win-win solutions and my desire for consensus building blind me to those situations when I know I am right and must insist on an unpopular course of action. Two problems: what level of certainty do I require before I am willing to demand we adopt my approach in the face of unanimous or nearly unanimous opposition? And, am I afraid of being labeled a witch (a label I may already have “earned”) essentially falling prey to the societal prejudice which views a male leader as “assertive” while the female counterpart is “pushy”?
But I digress….
My staff’s position almost makes sense despite leaving unanswered crucial questions such as: what we do with the students who haven’t “earned” Activity Period? And what defines, in both quantity and quality, the misbehavior that will cause a student to lose Activity Period? These are hard questions and with the unending time pressures, I allow them to be raised but I don’t insist we make time for hashing out options and reaching solutions. Thus they remain unanswered, a mistake that compounds the problems inherent in using Activity Period as a reward: is it appropriate to deny students participation in a segment of the school day which staff has determined has educational value and, moreover, is it possible that those who misbehave the most are also most in need of Activity Period?
It starts slowly, first just a handful, then a bunch and suddenly the floodgates open and every day at 3:00 pm Rusty and Rosie find themselves overrun, their counseling office full of dozens of children who are prohibited from participating in Activity Period. Their portable seems to swell and roll with the waves of angry children. Students claim ignorance at the misbehavior that caused them to lose Activity Period, they protest their innocence, complaining of unfair treatment and of scapegoating teachers. They demand to know since so and so did such and such which is much worse than what they are accused of, why isn’t he (or she!) also missing Activity Period? Suddenly there are so many children the counselors can’t contain them and it isn’t unusual for some escapees to sprint from the portable and rampage over campus disrupting the Activity Period. The atmosphere in the counseling portable becomes unbearably toxic. Rosie and Rusty complain to me about their headaches from the volume of the incessant cursing. We try hard to steer parents away from this boiling cauldron, but we don’t always succeed.
One afternoon Connor’s father comes to school to complain to Neeley, Connor’s teacher, that Connor, the gifted boy who gets along well with adults but not with peers, doesn’t get enough homework. Afterwards, Connor’s Dad comes to see me to reiterate his complaint. By the time he is done, we are in the throes of Activity Period. When I radio Theo to ask him to send Connor to my office, he informs me Connor isn’t in Golf Club today since Conner started several fights at lunch and thus is in the counseling portable. I suggest that Connor’s father wait in my office while I get Connor, but he doesn’t want to further inconvenience me and says he’ll go collect Connor himself. Chicken that I am, I don’t accompany him.
Rusty and Rosie fill me in later.
Apparently, Connor’s father entered the Counseling Portable and was understandably unnerved by the atmosphere. He took it upon himself to chastise some of the children. Although Connor can’t get along with his peers and can be vulgar and violent with his classmates, he is unfailingly polite to adults. Maybe Connor’s father thought all children are like that, but when he began to reprimand the misbehaving no-activity children, they responded in true Prospect fashion: shouting and cursing. Immediately Connor’s father spiraled downward into their world, shouting and cursing back at the students. As the children realized this man was Connor’s father, they ratcheted up a notch and began to personalize the attacks, accusing Connor of engaging in a variety of vulgar and impossible sexual behaviors. Rusty and Rosie then had a very angry and volatile father-son team facing off against over a dozen angry adolescents. A full-out riot didn’t seem unlikely. Somehow they managed to escort/push Connor and his father out of the portable. In full view of many students, teachers and a few parents, Connor’s father stormed to the parking lot screaming curses and giving the Prospect salute (aka “the bird”). It comes back to me that when I first met Connor’s family, Connor’s mother told me her son AND husband would benefit from lessons in anger control.
The incident with Connor’s father prompts Rusty to devise a new procedure: The Wall. Now students who lose the privilege of attending activity period will have to stand and stare at the cinderblock wall outside the school for the last hour of the day. Rusty, Rosie and the Deputy take turns policing this “wailing wall.” It isn’t a good solution but it’s better than trying to confine the angry mobs in the portable. It quickly becomes apparent that the students are not evenly distributed from all classes: Stone sentences the most students to “the wall” and in fact sometimes his entire homeroom has “the wall” for activity period. Having twenty or more students starring at a cinderblock wall is not a scene I’m proud to have parents and other guests witness.
Meanwhile, other aspects of Activity Period start to unravel. Even with Valerie (my Title One Math teacher and former Army Officer) policing the campus during Activity Period, we still have a handful of stray children who prefer chaos to any activity we offer. Some clubs (Running and Volleyball in particular) create the ideal conditions for these wandering (and often rampaging) children. We never have a problem with students “escaping” from Fishing Club, Chess Club, Auto Mechanics, Board Games, Computers or Model Club.
Oddly we also have wandering problems in Clay Creations class. Elementary teacher Midge runs this club and when her artistic brain is focused on one child’s clay vase, she is oblivious to the other children who are making and launching clay missiles, running in and out of class and forming their clay into hollow spheres. My bus drivers ask me to cancel the clay activity reporting that the kids secret these hollow clay spheres out of their activity, fill them with water and throw them at their peers on the bus ride home - sort of improvised water balloons. Prospect kids do the darndest things! Neeley supervises Running club. Supervises might be too strong a verb. His runners often run the prescribed route and then run all over campus bursting into classrooms and disrupting other activities. Then there is volleyball.
I probably should have cancelled volleyball when Daphne left. Thought keeping it wasn’t an oversight, I made a deliberate decision to keep this popular activity because we have an inter-school volleyball tournament scheduled to be played against a similar club at my mentor, Rex’s school in a few weeks. We have a similar chess tournament scheduled as well. The students are very excited – Prospect students have never been allowed to compete against public school students in any activity. Thus I am determined to keep volleyball until the tournament. After Daphne left, Stephanie offered to run volleyball and assured me she could handle her orientation class combined with the volleyball club. Why did I ever think this would work? Volleyball has become a disaster and it frequently degenerates into violence. During Activity Period, the deputy divides his time between The Wall and Volleyball court. One of the bus drivers offers to help Stephanie, but volleyball is still a risky venture. When Elliott joins volleyball, the simmering ingredients are really set to boil over.
My first impression of Elliott is that he is little, cute and quiet. That was before he bit Rosie. In fact Elliott starred in a scene that was unusual even by Prospect standards! A nine-year-old white kid gets off the school bus, dives to the ground and, on all fours, chases our Counselor while snarling and biting at her ankles. Orientation leader Stephanie chases him while Rosie runs, trying to protect her ankles. Meanwhile, dozens of students force their way off the busses for a ringside seat. The teachers are equally mesmerized and I have to remind them to watch their students and not Elliott. Stephanie finally manages to restrain Elliott; she is a familiar face since she met with him yesterday when he registered. He calms down but won’t speak, move or make eye contact with her. I remember Elliott’s intake packet indicated that both his parents are deaf. While Elliott isn’t hearing impaired I have this idea we could try to communicate using sign language. I know one of our bus drivers has been studying American Sign Language so I ask her to try signing to Elliott to find out why he is upset. At first he ignores her but finally he signs back that the children on the bus were making fun of him for being so small. Elliott isn’t small for a fourth grader, but he is small relative to the hulking middle school students. Quick decision: rather than put him in orientation with mostly big middle school children, Elliott can skip orientation and immediately join Midge’s elementary classroom.
A few days later Midge reports Elliot is responding well. He only bites food and he wants to sign up for volleyball.
When the call for help is broadcast over the walkie-talkies, I am able to respond rapidly. I long ago learned to stay outside during Activity Period. I arrive at the volleyball court a step ahead of the deputy. A teeth-gnashing Elliott is chasing a middle schooler. The older child looks genuinely frightened as he realizes the growling Elliott means business. The Deputy and I are able to pin Elliott, making sure his teeth are a safe distance from our suddenly very vulnerable flesh. Stephanie hustles the other volleyball players toward the busses for departure. The Deputy threatens Elliott – if you don’t stop squirming I’ll handcuff you. Kneeling in the sandy volleyball court in my yellow skirt I wish the Deputy would cuff this biting boy. I’m tired of holding down his limbs. But Elliott doesn’t respond at all to the Deputy; it is as if he can’t hear him. Transportation coordinator Shasta radios to ask me whether she should hold the busses for Elliott. I want to say yes since I don’t want to spend the afternoon with this Hannibal waiting for who knows how long for his parents, but Elliott is clearly still too agitated to ride a bus. The busses leave. Stephanie returns to the volleyball court with Stone, Rosie and Rusty in tow. The Deputy looks at his watch, mutters something and walks off. We all assume he is getting the squad car for Elliott and he does get in his car, but instead he drives off campus! I don’t really want Elliott arrested, but neither do I want to be stuck with him. Each adult thinks he or she can soothe this small child and get him calm enough to walk back to the school buildings. We all try and fail. It is 4:30 pm and five adults are kneeling on a volleyball court taking turns restraining a snapping fourth grader.
Stephanie decides to get her mini-van. She drives across the field and parks next to us on the volleyball court. We physically and forcefully have to move Elliott into the back seat. We each take an appendage and hold him by his hands and feet as he twists, squirms and spits trying to get free and bite. He struggles and strains violently and we find ourselves dancing a demented Hokey-Pokey as we take turns retreating in fear of his biting teeth. We manage to make it to the counseling office without any wounds. In the counseling office Elliott squirms free of us, crawls under a table and stays there whimpering for an hour until his parents come get him. Stone and Rusty stay the whole time. I am thankful for their company and support.
Epilogue:
Prospect’s Chess team plays Rex’s team and wins the tournament! Sam, who runs our Chess club is proud and the public school kids are impressed. Our volleyball team plays three games against Rex’s. We win one and lose two, but Rex makes sure we all feel like winners when he presents all my students with t-shirts saying “Prospect Volleyball Team.” On the bus back to Prospect you couldn’t find a prouder group of “losers.”
As for Elliott, we never have another problem with him -no biting not even a playful nip. In fact, he becomes a model student, the best in Midge’s class. Although I am happy with this outcome, I am also somewhat perplexed by Elliott – how did he go from being extremely bizarre to being normal? Was he testing us? Did he find the atmosphere in Midge’s class comforting? Curious, it is easier for me to explain and understand why my students misbehave, than why they behave appropriately. In the class photo, while the other children make faces and assume strange poses, Elliott stands with his hands behind his back and his chest out, a serious look on his face. I can’t help but smile when I see that picture.
Chapter 51: Another Brick in the Wall
It really is disheartening. Here we are in the fourth quarter of the academic calendar and some key policies and procedures I put into place nearly a year ago still don’t run smoothly, despite having discussed, revisited and reconfigured them with the team during the subsequent months. These include (but are not limited to): teachers writing notes in planners, bus departure and the ever-contentious Activity Period. In the case of Activity Period, I suppose I’ve scored a minor victory: my faculty now recognizes the benefits of Activity Period and, while saying they are enthusiastic might be overstating their feelings, they are supportive. Recent additions include a “Golf Club” run by new teacher Theo, which is inspiring over a dozen children to become Tiger Woods, and Jordan’s very popular Auto Mechanics club. Even Stone is on board, he sent home permission slips last week so he can take his fishing club on their first field trip to actually go fishing (usually they watch videos and engage in fish tales). But despite all this positive energy, Activity Period remains a source of angst.
As teachers recognize the value students place on Activity Period, they want to use it as a privilege that must be earned, or more accurately, can be lost. They feel students who have misbehaved during the day should not be allowed to participate in Activity Period at the end of the day. When we discuss this in our weekly meeting, I express my philosophy that Activity Period should be treated like any other class, but my staff is adamantly opposed, flinging around phrases like “entitlement mentality” and “rewarding misbehavior.” My staff views Activity Period as a rare “carrot” in a world of ineffective “sticks.” Prospect students are mostly unfazed by threats to remove them from class, call their parents or suspend them. But they sure don’t want to miss Activity Period. I surrender to the majority and don’t press my views, although in retrospect, things might have gone better if I had –in fact it would have been hard for things to have been worse, but hindsight makes the muddiest waters clear.
I wonder, is this a recurring theme of my tenure at Prospect? As a leader do I lack the backbone to make hard and unpopular decisions? Perhaps my search for win-win solutions and my desire for consensus building blind me to those situations when I know I am right and must insist on an unpopular course of action. Two problems: what level of certainty do I require before I am willing to demand we adopt my approach in the face of unanimous or nearly unanimous opposition? And, am I afraid of being labeled a witch (a label I may already have “earned”) essentially falling prey to the societal prejudice which views a male leader as “assertive” while the female counterpart is “pushy”?
But I digress….
My staff’s position almost makes sense despite leaving unanswered crucial questions such as: what we do with the students who haven’t “earned” Activity Period? And what defines, in both quantity and quality, the misbehavior that will cause a student to lose Activity Period? These are hard questions and with the unending time pressures, I allow them to be raised but I don’t insist we make time for hashing out options and reaching solutions. Thus they remain unanswered, a mistake that compounds the problems inherent in using Activity Period as a reward: is it appropriate to deny students participation in a segment of the school day which staff has determined has educational value and, moreover, is it possible that those who misbehave the most are also most in need of Activity Period?
It starts slowly, first just a handful, then a bunch and suddenly the floodgates open and every day at 3:00 pm Rusty and Rosie find themselves overrun, their counseling office full of dozens of children who are prohibited from participating in Activity Period. Their portable seems to swell and roll with the waves of angry children. Students claim ignorance at the misbehavior that caused them to lose Activity Period, they protest their innocence, complaining of unfair treatment and of scapegoating teachers. They demand to know since so and so did such and such which is much worse than what they are accused of, why isn’t he (or she!) also missing Activity Period? Suddenly there are so many children the counselors can’t contain them and it isn’t unusual for some escapees to sprint from the portable and rampage over campus disrupting the Activity Period. The atmosphere in the counseling portable becomes unbearably toxic. Rosie and Rusty complain to me about their headaches from the volume of the incessant cursing. We try hard to steer parents away from this boiling cauldron, but we don’t always succeed.
One afternoon Connor’s father comes to school to complain to Neeley, Connor’s teacher, that Connor, the gifted boy who gets along well with adults but not with peers, doesn’t get enough homework. Afterwards, Connor’s Dad comes to see me to reiterate his complaint. By the time he is done, we are in the throes of Activity Period. When I radio Theo to ask him to send Connor to my office, he informs me Connor isn’t in Golf Club today since Conner started several fights at lunch and thus is in the counseling portable. I suggest that Connor’s father wait in my office while I get Connor, but he doesn’t want to further inconvenience me and says he’ll go collect Connor himself. Chicken that I am, I don’t accompany him.
Rusty and Rosie fill me in later.
Apparently, Connor’s father entered the Counseling Portable and was understandably unnerved by the atmosphere. He took it upon himself to chastise some of the children. Although Connor can’t get along with his peers and can be vulgar and violent with his classmates, he is unfailingly polite to adults. Maybe Connor’s father thought all children are like that, but when he began to reprimand the misbehaving no-activity children, they responded in true Prospect fashion: shouting and cursing. Immediately Connor’s father spiraled downward into their world, shouting and cursing back at the students. As the children realized this man was Connor’s father, they ratcheted up a notch and began to personalize the attacks, accusing Connor of engaging in a variety of vulgar and impossible sexual behaviors. Rusty and Rosie then had a very angry and volatile father-son team facing off against over a dozen angry adolescents. A full-out riot didn’t seem unlikely. Somehow they managed to escort/push Connor and his father out of the portable. In full view of many students, teachers and a few parents, Connor’s father stormed to the parking lot screaming curses and giving the Prospect salute (aka “the bird”). It comes back to me that when I first met Connor’s family, Connor’s mother told me her son AND husband would benefit from lessons in anger control.
The incident with Connor’s father prompts Rusty to devise a new procedure: The Wall. Now students who lose the privilege of attending activity period will have to stand and stare at the cinderblock wall outside the school for the last hour of the day. Rusty, Rosie and the Deputy take turns policing this “wailing wall.” It isn’t a good solution but it’s better than trying to confine the angry mobs in the portable. It quickly becomes apparent that the students are not evenly distributed from all classes: Stone sentences the most students to “the wall” and in fact sometimes his entire homeroom has “the wall” for activity period. Having twenty or more students starring at a cinderblock wall is not a scene I’m proud to have parents and other guests witness.
Meanwhile, other aspects of Activity Period start to unravel. Even with Valerie (my Title One Math teacher and former Army Officer) policing the campus during Activity Period, we still have a handful of stray children who prefer chaos to any activity we offer. Some clubs (Running and Volleyball in particular) create the ideal conditions for these wandering (and often rampaging) children. We never have a problem with students “escaping” from Fishing Club, Chess Club, Auto Mechanics, Board Games, Computers or Model Club.
Oddly we also have wandering problems in Clay Creations class. Elementary teacher Midge runs this club and when her artistic brain is focused on one child’s clay vase, she is oblivious to the other children who are making and launching clay missiles, running in and out of class and forming their clay into hollow spheres. My bus drivers ask me to cancel the clay activity reporting that the kids secret these hollow clay spheres out of their activity, fill them with water and throw them at their peers on the bus ride home - sort of improvised water balloons. Prospect kids do the darndest things! Neeley supervises Running club. Supervises might be too strong a verb. His runners often run the prescribed route and then run all over campus bursting into classrooms and disrupting other activities. Then there is volleyball.
I probably should have cancelled volleyball when Daphne left. Thought keeping it wasn’t an oversight, I made a deliberate decision to keep this popular activity because we have an inter-school volleyball tournament scheduled to be played against a similar club at my mentor, Rex’s school in a few weeks. We have a similar chess tournament scheduled as well. The students are very excited – Prospect students have never been allowed to compete against public school students in any activity. Thus I am determined to keep volleyball until the tournament. After Daphne left, Stephanie offered to run volleyball and assured me she could handle her orientation class combined with the volleyball club. Why did I ever think this would work? Volleyball has become a disaster and it frequently degenerates into violence. During Activity Period, the deputy divides his time between The Wall and Volleyball court. One of the bus drivers offers to help Stephanie, but volleyball is still a risky venture. When Elliott joins volleyball, the simmering ingredients are really set to boil over.
My first impression of Elliott is that he is little, cute and quiet. That was before he bit Rosie. In fact Elliott starred in a scene that was unusual even by Prospect standards! A nine-year-old white kid gets off the school bus, dives to the ground and, on all fours, chases our Counselor while snarling and biting at her ankles. Orientation leader Stephanie chases him while Rosie runs, trying to protect her ankles. Meanwhile, dozens of students force their way off the busses for a ringside seat. The teachers are equally mesmerized and I have to remind them to watch their students and not Elliott. Stephanie finally manages to restrain Elliott; she is a familiar face since she met with him yesterday when he registered. He calms down but won’t speak, move or make eye contact with her. I remember Elliott’s intake packet indicated that both his parents are deaf. While Elliott isn’t hearing impaired I have this idea we could try to communicate using sign language. I know one of our bus drivers has been studying American Sign Language so I ask her to try signing to Elliott to find out why he is upset. At first he ignores her but finally he signs back that the children on the bus were making fun of him for being so small. Elliott isn’t small for a fourth grader, but he is small relative to the hulking middle school students. Quick decision: rather than put him in orientation with mostly big middle school children, Elliott can skip orientation and immediately join Midge’s elementary classroom.
A few days later Midge reports Elliot is responding well. He only bites food and he wants to sign up for volleyball.
When the call for help is broadcast over the walkie-talkies, I am able to respond rapidly. I long ago learned to stay outside during Activity Period. I arrive at the volleyball court a step ahead of the deputy. A teeth-gnashing Elliott is chasing a middle schooler. The older child looks genuinely frightened as he realizes the growling Elliott means business. The Deputy and I are able to pin Elliott, making sure his teeth are a safe distance from our suddenly very vulnerable flesh. Stephanie hustles the other volleyball players toward the busses for departure. The Deputy threatens Elliott – if you don’t stop squirming I’ll handcuff you. Kneeling in the sandy volleyball court in my yellow skirt I wish the Deputy would cuff this biting boy. I’m tired of holding down his limbs. But Elliott doesn’t respond at all to the Deputy; it is as if he can’t hear him. Transportation coordinator Shasta radios to ask me whether she should hold the busses for Elliott. I want to say yes since I don’t want to spend the afternoon with this Hannibal waiting for who knows how long for his parents, but Elliott is clearly still too agitated to ride a bus. The busses leave. Stephanie returns to the volleyball court with Stone, Rosie and Rusty in tow. The Deputy looks at his watch, mutters something and walks off. We all assume he is getting the squad car for Elliott and he does get in his car, but instead he drives off campus! I don’t really want Elliott arrested, but neither do I want to be stuck with him. Each adult thinks he or she can soothe this small child and get him calm enough to walk back to the school buildings. We all try and fail. It is 4:30 pm and five adults are kneeling on a volleyball court taking turns restraining a snapping fourth grader.
Stephanie decides to get her mini-van. She drives across the field and parks next to us on the volleyball court. We physically and forcefully have to move Elliott into the back seat. We each take an appendage and hold him by his hands and feet as he twists, squirms and spits trying to get free and bite. He struggles and strains violently and we find ourselves dancing a demented Hokey-Pokey as we take turns retreating in fear of his biting teeth. We manage to make it to the counseling office without any wounds. In the counseling office Elliott squirms free of us, crawls under a table and stays there whimpering for an hour until his parents come get him. Stone and Rusty stay the whole time. I am thankful for their company and support.
Epilogue:
Prospect’s Chess team plays Rex’s team and wins the tournament! Sam, who runs our Chess club is proud and the public school kids are impressed. Our volleyball team plays three games against Rex’s. We win one and lose two, but Rex makes sure we all feel like winners when he presents all my students with t-shirts saying “Prospect Volleyball Team.” On the bus back to Prospect you couldn’t find a prouder group of “losers.”
As for Elliott, we never have another problem with him -no biting not even a playful nip. In fact, he becomes a model student, the best in Midge’s class. Although I am happy with this outcome, I am also somewhat perplexed by Elliott – how did he go from being extremely bizarre to being normal? Was he testing us? Did he find the atmosphere in Midge’s class comforting? Curious, it is easier for me to explain and understand why my students misbehave, than why they behave appropriately. In the class photo, while the other children make faces and assume strange poses, Elliott stands with his hands behind his back and his chest out, a serious look on his face. I can’t help but smile when I see that picture.
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