What a day....

It has been a very long time since I have so much as thought about touching this blog, but here I am tonight doing just that and more. I had one of the most emotionally charged days that I have ever had in a work setting. I seriously felt as if I was in an episode of Boston Public or something because there was so much interpersonal drama between students and teachers, teachers and administration, and parents and students that I was almost waiting on credits to roll when I walked out the door today. It is funny how things work out because I planned this nice send off to my seniors in the form of free pizza for my students when all of a sudden, I caught one of my students having a meltdown because the owner of my school told him that he couldn't graduate. That immediately caught me off guard, and I went into counselor mode and tried to calm him by promising to get to the bottom of the situation and resolving the matter for him. I found out that this incident came about when he played a joke on his English teacher by telling her that he had a gift for her. This gift was a pole made of of a plastic bat attached to the end of a broken off golf club with a piece of a paper with a coat of arms fashioned in the shape of a cross with a hamburger in the center.

The teacher of course didn't know this because he didn't bring it with him, and so the class of students that were in the room escalated the situation even further by blurting out ominous comments like "Yeah, give it to her! She deserves it"! This didn't make the teacher feel like the gift was sunshine and rainbows because her students were already mad at her because she gave them a three page research paper that was due on their last day of school. This of course made the teacher very nervous about what the gift was, so she did the appropriate thing and reported the incident to the principal. This started the chain of events that lead to the Boston Public like drama because at that point the principle told the chancellor of our school and he decided to ban my student from participating in the graduation ceremony. This of course destroyed my student, and started my investigation of the incident. I know this student pretty well and although the gift was molded out of a plastic bat and a golf club handle, his intention was never to hit his teacher with it or even act as if he was going to do so. His main focus for making the pole was to attach the coat with the hamburger cross so that he could sing a song. After I explained this to the teacher, she immediately felt a sense of relief and she completely rejected the idea of my student being punished for the intended prank.

I explained this much to the principal of the school and she seemed inclined to agree with removing the punishment, but it wasn't up to her to decide. I had to run this by the chancellor first. Unfortunately the chancellor of the school had other ideas. When this was all explained to the chancellor he wouldn't budge on his decision to change the punishment. I actually spent the about 15 mins trying every type of appeal that I could to get him to see some sense of logic and reasoning, but he kept comparing the incident to crazy acts of violence such as shooting a gun past my head, murders, and beatings. I even tried a legal approach that was shot down immediate because he felt like he was Denny Crane or something and tried to lecture me on how he has never lost a lawsuit when what he didn't know is that I know that he has been sued multiple times and lost every one of them. At that point he just brushed me off as basically said that I would have to grovel before his board of trustees in order overturn his decision, but he made sure that he made that sound nearly hopeless by saying that the original statement by the teacher would be the main thing that they would hear about. This is despite the fact that the teacher herself recanted once she found out the true nature of the prank. The principal did nothing but agree with the chancellor like a good little puppet even though she was more inclined to agree with us moments before. The things people do to keep their job make me sick to my stomach sometimes. After this moment of defeat I had to go back and tell the student that I couldn't save him and this made me break down for a moment, so much so that I had to bypass the student and make a beeline to the bathroom where I did my best to stifle some gut-wrenching sobs before I clean my face and went outside to face him. To abbreviate the rest, I had to tell his parents who were both upset in different ways. The mother was brought to tears, and the dad wanted to beat the living crap out of the chancellor. The parent, student, teacher, and myself had to write an appeal and I now have to wait on the board's decision next Thursday for a resolution.

In addition to the drama of that situation, today was also the day in which all of the teachers received their evaluation results and essentially our rehire decision. The drama of this came not with me, but with my coworker and good friend. I had good results and was asked back but my friend received the opposite. I felt terrible about the situation and I couldn't believe that the principal would do that to him. He is a good teacher and a great person, and the only reason why he was not allowed to come back was because of personal reasons. It is well known that a principal has the power to keep you if they want you, but when they don't you are gone. This decision was completely personal and I am surprised that I didn't fall victim to this method of judgement. After suffering an emotional defeat and witnessing my friend basically become jobless, I am needless to say, feeling a bit blue. I have been trying to act normal, but as soon as I sit down long enough to be alone with my thoughts, I can't help but feel blue. This type of uncertainty definitely makes me want to possibly move on to greener pastures. I just don't know if I can do that because I would like to feel more secure by having my apprentice license before I leave where I am now.