Day 10

And now the Book reverts to form!

Whilst escorting my 2nd period class to lunch there was a bloody fist fight between two girls from my first period class in the hall. I had to manhandle kids to get them apart and to get the crowd control going.

A social worker stopped in my room while I was eating lunch. "Hi, I'm a trainee social worker and I have been assigned here as an intern. I have seen 8th graders all morning and would like to observe your 6th graders last period."

I laughed a morbid laugh, then: "You can certainly observe that class. Get ready though, they are off the chain."

She said "6th graders are too cute to be off the chain."

Ha. As the class came in young Fate had words with young Hubris. Fate is explosively violent and anytime someone gives her the least cause she will bang them in the eye piece. Hubris is a jackass wannabe gangbanger with an externalized locus of control. Any time he gets busted for doing something foolish it's somebody else's fault. The started pushing, I got between them. They cooled off. The social worker helpfully took Fate aside and spoke to her. An eighth grader and a student from my second period class came into my room and started fussing. I commanded them to leave, and the eighth grader said "fuck you get out my face." I called security, who never came, and then I looked up to see the social worker in the midst of a melee. I called for security again and started peeling onion layers of blue uniformed youngins apart. Fate was shouting "my father come up in here and kick your fucking asses bitch for touching my stuff." She unleashed a sidewinder kick of remarkable violence. Fortunately she missed her target and kicked me in the gut (thank goodness for that inversion table and inverted crunches!). This gave me sufficient cause to involve an administrator. Hubris shouted "bitch my fatha carry hard iron. You bring your fatha up in here he be full of holes!"

We got the situation calm again. Mr. H my hapless co-teacher took Hubris for a walk to the office and the social worker took the other. When they returned an 8th grade melee opened up in the hall and my students immediately swarmed toward the door. Uh-huh. I put out my left arm and swept 18 youngsters back and slammed the door. D-man said "Dag, you strong." I said "I told you not to play in here. Get in your seats."

The social worker was very helpful. I'd warned her this class needed a lot of support, and hopefully she takes word of that back to the powers that be. I have many parent conferences coming up for that group, but have my doubts based on phone conversations that this will be at all helpful. I think several of these kids run their own homes.

Already many faculty are starting to call out sick, and some of the subs are leaving mid-shift. A bit of last year starting to creep in. Here we go. Someone threw a fruit cup at me in the hall, and peaches splashed along the corridor. I was lucky not to get drenched in Dole syrup.