Friday, May 21, 2010

Day -18

So second period we're getting ready for the weekly vocabulary/grammar quiz when I get a whiff of something strange. It reminds me of my many DC protests: IMF, World Bank, G7, Bush Inaugural I, and several Iraq War protests. I jump up, because I have at least 5 kids in the room with asthma and what I'm smelling is pepper spray.

I get to the door just as kids start hacking and wheezing. In the hall are six sixth graders on the floor, clutching at their throats and eyes and gasping. I think "there are serious asthma cases in my homeroom" and they are just down the hall in the math class. I call the office and immediately the principal evacuates the 2nd floor. Shortly thereafter, we evcuate the building.

Some chuckleheads discharged pepper spray cannisters and ran down the hall with them. In a building with no windows and a high percentage of asthma sufferers, this is a potentially lethal thing to do. We were out of doors for more than hour waiting on the fire department to bring in fans to blow out the chemicals.

So much for the vocabulary/grammar quiz in period two. They got to play a game of pick-up football using a shoe for a ball instead.

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