Reality Disrupts Education

Just when I'd reached a point where I could pretend my school was somewhat normal, reality kicked back in. It was a pretty normal day on Tuesday. My kids were working on making up work, and we were all just hanging out in class when there was an announcement made to close and lock our doors. Not a problem for me, because mine is always closed and locked, and I figured they just had too many 11th graders out in the hall and were going to do a hall sweep. That's why about 10 minutes later I wrote a bunch of kids passes to go get their pictures taken for the yearbook. I got a little suspicious when they got ushered quickly back into the room, but then I figured we just had an intruder in the building. When the bell rang, I hadn't heard any more, so I let them go. At that point, the assistant principal and the secretary were both in the hall, and Ms. Land was yelling "SOMEONE'S BEEN STABBED! GO BACK TO CLASS!!!" So that was interesting. My kids didn't freak - they just came back to my room, and we all sat and had a nice relaxing break from learning. I talked to a few of my boys about debate and we went along like nothing was wrong. At 1 we had to usher them downstairs for lunch and then block the doors to keep them from going outside - the parking lot was still a crime scene and had to be preserved. More chaos ensued later that day - confusion about dismissal, mixed messages over the announcements, etc. The short story about the stabbing is that two kids were fighting, supposedly about a dice game, and one of them stabbed the other. They weren't from my school, they were from the other school in the building. The one who was stabbed lived, even though he refused medical attention at first. The other was still on the loose last I heard, but to their credit, the kids told on him and the other 3 guys who assisted, and the accomplices are in jail on attempted murder chargers while the stabber's name and everything have been released. For more, type "baltimore stabbing southwestern" in to google.

I told some people about this incident, and everyone was really concerned - which I appreciated. They all wanted to know if I was ok, and what had happened, and if the kid was ok, and all of that. It's very sweet. I wonder if I was supposed to be upset - but I don't think I was. I don't think I had any right to be. Honestly, this didn't affect me. It wasn't my student and I personally was never in any danger. Other than the fact that it happened within close proximity to me, it had nothing to do with me. I didn't witness it, it didn't have any impact on my day beyond having to worry about not talking to the press and screwing up two of my classes because I didn't get to see them. Did this remind me that the same thing could happen to any one of my students? Sure. But I always knew that - I knew it going in. So I guess I just don't understand the people who did get really upset about it. The kids weren't even upset. Are we so deprived of drama that we have to take every opportunity to have something dramatic happen "to" us? Seriously.

The other thing that I realized is the way that things like this are treated at our school, and how different it is from what I grew up with. I talked to my brother, an dhe knows of someone who was stabbed at school. It didn't interrupt their day, they didn't make a big deal out of it, they just went on with life. So if part of the reason that our kids fight and start fires and, lets face it, stab each other is to get attention, isn't this just fueling the fire? Wasn't keeping the kids locked up all day just encouraging them to do bad things to get attention? I'm not sure, but it definitely seemed strange to me.

Also, the weird thing was that I wasn't that surprised by this. My reaction was, "is it one of my kids?" and when I heard no, then my next thought was "I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner." Have I really gotten so desensitized? And how sad for my students that they didn't freak out at all - I know that I would have flipped if this happened in my high school.

The day after the stabbing, the full impact of the event became clear to me. I kept a journal that day (which I'm about to post on here). It really screwed up the next couple of days of school - but everything is pretty much back to normal now. Enjoy reading about the day after. And if you want to engage in some discussion about school violence or anything, leave a comment....


The Stabbing: The Day After

7:55 – I arrive at school and have to go in through the one door that is open. I get to bypass the metal detector while students have their bags searched and have to walk through. I hear 4 metal detector beeps before I make it to the stairwell.

8:15 – The bell rings. There are no students in my class. There was one, but he wandered off somewhere.

8:25 – Ten minutes after the bell. There is one student in my class – a different one than the one that was there at 8:15.

8:45 – Announcement not to allow students in to class with bookbags that aren’t mesh or clear. I am wondering how any of them got in with those, since they all had their bags searched on the way in to the building, but there you go. I let my kids store their bags in the back of my room for the day.

9:05 – I walk down the hall and look into Ms. Watkins’ room, where I find 3 kids who are not in uniform. As the head of the English department, I assumed that she knew that students were not to be admitted to class without uniform on, and this was merely an oversight on her part. So I told on her.

9:10 – I head upstairs to Michelle’s room to brag about my evil wench bust, and find her inconsolable in her room. I still have no idea exactly what was wrong, but I went to find someone to help her out.

9:35 – On my way back down to my room, I start to hear some ruckus. Several kids come running out of the government class. I look in, and see the whole class pressed up against the window. The same continues all the way down the hall, until I get to Ms. Queen’s class, where the children are oblivious to the excitement. When I get to my room, I look out the window myself and see school police chasing children and kids jumping the fence. Pretty exciting.

10:45 – Announcement from Mrs. Stokes: “Stop taking advantage of us. Stop being tardy. I’m going to write you all letters.”

12:15 – Sixth period. There are STILL kids in class who are not in uniform who have attended every class before mine and not been sent to the office. What part of “do not allow students into your classes with no uniform” is unclear?

1:00 – Just as the bell rings, here comes a brand new student, not in uniform. Who knows why he is transferring here after a quarter and a half, but an even better question is why someone decided to put him in a Chemistry class when he has not been in Chemistry at all this year. Seriously, I’d like to know the answer to that question.

1:45 – Class has been in session now for 15 minutes, and there are still 20 kids in the hall. Where are their teachers?

2:20 – My 9th period comes in and starts on their work. I decide to stretch out the rest of the work so that they have enough time to prepare for their test – I will just have to do a time-waster with the rest of the classes on Friday. It really is strange how the kids are totally relaxed and not upset at all by what happened yesterday.

3:05 – The end of the day. I wonder what tomorrow will be like?

**The next day, we had metal detectors again, but they didn’t let the kids up at all until about 8:20 because the PD didn’t get to the school with the detectors until late. On Friday, the principal got tired of waiting for the PD to get there and finally let the kids in without the metal detectors at about 8:25.