Terrible day. Third period, kids were out of control when I got there, and I barely got them reined in by the end of class. We got nothing done.
Last class of the day I got about half of them seated and started going over the lesson. Just getting to that point took a half hour. I had to put a punk ass kid out the class for trying to start a fight.
I got through a couple stanzas of poetry and there was a huge disturbance in the hall. Immediately students were pouring out of the room. I went out and found a new kid at Booker T. on the floor. His eyes were glazed, his left arm was rigid and in the air and twitching. I thought he was having a seizure until I knelt next to him and realized he'd been beat down. There was a grotesque lump over his eye and blood was pooling under his head. I touched his chest and said "Are you alright?" His heart was racing and he couldn't respond. By this time other teachers were around. I asked the science teacher if anyone had called the nurse, she said the administrators were on the way. We lamely tried to get students back into class but there was chaos.
Apparently the kid I put out of my classroom took it upon himself to do this. He knocked the new kid cold with one punch, and when the new kid was on the floor he stomped on his face three times.
I wish I could say something sympathetic or warm-hearted. But the kids were disgusting bastards for the most part. They thought the seizing and the blood were funny. When the Vice Principal arrived and tried to comfort the badly unjured boy he confusedly tried to hug her. This caused her to burst into tears as she sobbed into her walkie-talkie for the school police and an ambulance. Again this resulted in laughter and howls of derision.
Fuck this shit. I was tempted to just leave at that point. But we went back to class. No work got done, but I kept them under control for a while.
And Lukie's in the hospital. Apparently her pleurisy diagnosis was wrong, and it might have been a blod clot. I hope she's all right.
2 comments:
That's horrible. I don't understand how people, even teenagers, can be so desensitized to human suffering that they actually think it's funny. I almost cried just reading about it. I feel really sorry for everyone involved.
I was quite disturbed. I keep seeing the kid's face, and hearing the mocking laughter of the crowd around him. Then I have to suck it up and get back in front of those very same kids who thought beating someone into a coma was funny.
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