Day 20

"I think Mr. G smilin' at me," Yasmine says.

"I smile at everybody, until they give me a reason not to," I reply.

"Can you pick up my pencil Mr. G?" Kanica asks.

"Sure," I reply. I pick it up and put it on her desk.

"You know she threw that down there just to see you bend over," Yasmine says.

Lukie laughs uncontrollably at that one.

Before class I heard a commotion in the hallway. Yasmine was trying to fight a much larger girl named Rasheria. I grabbed Yasmine around the waist and pulled her across the hall kicking and taunting the whole way. Rasheria would have pounded her into the floor.

Yesterday afternoon my Language Arts Student of the Week from two weeks ago beat the shit out of hapless Timothy, who picks fights every day and manages to get his ass kicked every time. Antonio is a full foot shorter than Timothy, and weighs at least forty pounds less, but Antonio made short work of his larger opponent, rendering him bloody and prone in seconds. Both are suspended. TJ is also suspended. Maria and Shantell were arrested and are still serving another week off.

Timothy has been soundly beaten by all the girls in class, and has now had his clock cleaned by the shortest student in 8th grade. I fully expect him next week to begin taunting seventh graders as he works his way down to somebody he can defeat in hand-to-hand combat.

There are five or six more kids in my 8:05 class who need to be suspended before we can get any learning done in there.