Stink Bomb

I finally realized, this evening, that today is Thursday the Twelfth. Which makes tomorrow Friday the Thirteenth. Maybe this can explain the behaviors seen across the middle school today.

It all started in 1st period. My normally lovely, sleepy-at-7:40-in-the-morning group was a little more wired than usual. Tee asked if she could eat her sunflower seeds.

"No! You know there's no eating in the classroom." She had already been warned to throw out her gum, as well.

I'm moving in to a unit on keyboard. I figure the kids will get a kick out of learning some simple, fun songs. So far, the kids who have had a chance have enjoyed it. I was working with two girls when suddenly...

"WHAT IS THAT SMELL?!"

One of the little shits (note that above I mentioned how lovely they usually are) had set off a stink bomb. It was putrid, and made several students feel ill. So we all trooped outside for a few minutes while I ranted at them.

I called for back-up and before long, two CSMs (Campus Security Monitors) had arrived at the scene. They did a backpack search. Nothing. GAH!

One saw that Frankie had an iPod. He asked him to hand it over.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Let me add that Frankie is normally a quiet, nice kid.

The other CSM moved in to assist. Frankie refused to hand it over. We had all seen that he had it, and he was being quite rude to the CSMs, so I wrote a referal and sent him to the office. A few minutes later, the group came back. Frankie had come clean, handed over his iPod, and wanted a 2nd chance. I gave it to him.

I went back to the front of my room to tell the class how disappointed I was. Tee was eating her sunflower seeds.

"Tee! Really? Good gree--oh, well, you know what? That's a detention."

I filled out the form and handed it over. She accepted it with grace and I went on with my "Are-you-kidding-me-this-is-one-of-my-best-classes-what-in-the-world-is-going-on-I-mean-seriously-a-STINK-BOMB?!?!" speech. By this point, most of the class seemed pretty chagrined.

Finally, class was over. I escorted the class to their line-up place where we meet their homeroom teacher. Tee came up to me and said, "Miss C., I'm really sorry I was eating in class. I know I get a detention, and I deserve it, but it wasn't very nice of me to eat."

"I appreciate that, Tee. And yes, you do deserve that detention. Don't do it again." She smiled, I smiled, and we were good once again. She really is a nice kid.

The next period is my prep, so I sagged, with relief at my computer for a moment. My attendance program wasn't working properly, so our campus computer guru came to my room to check it out. We were walking back to the office when we saw an 8th grade boy (that I don't teach) walking towards the edge of campus.

Mr. C. called out, "Moose, where are you going?"

"Home!" was the defiant reply.

Mr. C. ran after Moose while I went up to the office.

By the end of the day, I had heard stories about ungodly noise in Pod 1 (the middle school pod), a 7th grade girl who was texting while trying to play volleyball, and other assorted crazy behaviors from otherwise nice kids. I had sent my favorite gangsta-wannabe in 4th period to the office, only to have him storm out before the CSM could arrive, saying either, "Fuck you" or "Fuck this." I missed the second word, so I wrote both on the referral.

Gangsta-Wannabe-Boy has been an issue for all of his teachers, so I don't take it personally.

This was, seriously, one of those days that makes working at McDonald's look good. I had some time to go to the gym before going to an appointment with the eye doctor, so I got on the treadmill and ran.

I hate running. But I needed it, and oh, it was good.

I have no idea what's in store for tomorrow. I'm at my other school site, and there are a couple of kids there who could make my life a nightmare. We'll see. I'm hoping the promise of playing the keyboard next week will chill them out.