Let's suppose the following is a hypothetical account. By hypothetical, I mean "hypothetical" in the way 2 + 2 is hypothetically 4.
It's been bad all week. The students roaming the halls have been on edge, there's been a fight and two almost fights, lots of students have been suspended, and the administration is weighed down with it all.
Classes have been noisy and disruptive and I've not so much taught as baby sat and acted as disciplinarian. For the past two days I've forced students to remain in their seats in silence and do seatwork to prevent someone from getting in trouble.
I normally write fewer than three tickets in a grading period and this week I've dished out four. The tension in the air has been palpable.
Today it all came to a head.
Approximately one hour and ten minutes ago something that's never happened to me before finally happened.
The incident began when, let's call her Precious, Precious asked, and I quote:
"I need to go to the school nurse so she can look at my third leg. It's all swelled up and it hurts."
At that point I asked Precious to join me in my "office" (the hallway) and was refused. At that point, I informed Precious we had nothing to discuss and took the referral ticket off my clipboard and wrote in the last few bits. I had already filled it out ahead of time because I knew the chance of an incident with this student was high.
Precious took a swing at me.
Understand that Precious is not a little rough around the edges or misguided. Precious has MS13 tattoos and a criminal record and came to me from the juvenile justice program. Precious got referred to said program over 2 years ago because she was caught with a knife on campus.
So here we have Precious who I honestly have to regard as possibly armed with some form of weapon coming full on at me and I am under, shall we say, extreme coercion to not so much as lay a finger on her. It lasted less than 5 seconds at least. Her first punch was a classic overextension which I simply stepped into. The two follow up blows found nothing but air in similar fashion.
At this point the rest of this group, salty as they are, is shocked and quiet for the first time... well, ever. With hands up and palms open I told Precious to immediately report to the front office and she took off. A moment later after getting someone to watch the rest of them I did too.
Long story short we have the incident on videotape and showed it to the campus officer, and within 15 minutes of the incident the officer took Precious and a copy of the tape away from campus in handcuffs.
I can't really tell you any more of the facts, etc. regarding the incident or where it occurred or who it happened to and I hope you can appreciate why. I hope you understand why as far as I'm concerned, this is a "hypothetical" incident.
And by the way I'm fine, not a scratch on me, thank you for asking. And hypothetically if I were the person in this story I'd also add I'll never see Precious again at least not in a classroom. Texas law guarantees it.
Food for thought.
It's been bad all week. The students roaming the halls have been on edge, there's been a fight and two almost fights, lots of students have been suspended, and the administration is weighed down with it all.
Classes have been noisy and disruptive and I've not so much taught as baby sat and acted as disciplinarian. For the past two days I've forced students to remain in their seats in silence and do seatwork to prevent someone from getting in trouble.
I normally write fewer than three tickets in a grading period and this week I've dished out four. The tension in the air has been palpable.
Today it all came to a head.
Approximately one hour and ten minutes ago something that's never happened to me before finally happened.
The incident began when, let's call her Precious, Precious asked, and I quote:
"I need to go to the school nurse so she can look at my third leg. It's all swelled up and it hurts."
At that point I asked Precious to join me in my "office" (the hallway) and was refused. At that point, I informed Precious we had nothing to discuss and took the referral ticket off my clipboard and wrote in the last few bits. I had already filled it out ahead of time because I knew the chance of an incident with this student was high.
Precious took a swing at me.
Understand that Precious is not a little rough around the edges or misguided. Precious has MS13 tattoos and a criminal record and came to me from the juvenile justice program. Precious got referred to said program over 2 years ago because she was caught with a knife on campus.
So here we have Precious who I honestly have to regard as possibly armed with some form of weapon coming full on at me and I am under, shall we say, extreme coercion to not so much as lay a finger on her. It lasted less than 5 seconds at least. Her first punch was a classic overextension which I simply stepped into. The two follow up blows found nothing but air in similar fashion.
At this point the rest of this group, salty as they are, is shocked and quiet for the first time... well, ever. With hands up and palms open I told Precious to immediately report to the front office and she took off. A moment later after getting someone to watch the rest of them I did too.
Long story short we have the incident on videotape and showed it to the campus officer, and within 15 minutes of the incident the officer took Precious and a copy of the tape away from campus in handcuffs.
I can't really tell you any more of the facts, etc. regarding the incident or where it occurred or who it happened to and I hope you can appreciate why. I hope you understand why as far as I'm concerned, this is a "hypothetical" incident.
And by the way I'm fine, not a scratch on me, thank you for asking. And hypothetically if I were the person in this story I'd also add I'll never see Precious again at least not in a classroom. Texas law guarantees it.
Food for thought.
