Keeping an Eye on Him

Last Friday was my last day in the special ed math/history class. It was also assembly day. Ugh. 

Third period. This is the same group I wrote about yesterday. 

First, I passed out leis to the kiddos who had made the honor roll last semester (had a GPA of 3.0 or higher). That was basically the whole class except for the two students who managed to disappear on the way to the counselors the previous class. 

Before we left, I questioned Elian on what had happened. I mean, it wasn't like it was a distance, but somehow he disappeared. He hemmed and hawed, but he didn't have a great reason for vanishing. I pointed out that he missed his chance to register for classes. He said he'd already done it. 

We headed out to the gym for the dreaded assembly. But this time, I was going to keep an eye on Elian. (The girl who disappeared the previous day was absent.) 

And I did, up until we were almost at the gym. My mind wandered, and I took my eye off Elian. And he was gone.

Crap!

I backtracked, looking around. I was just about to talk to one of the security personnel when Elian appeared. Phew. 

They weren't letting us into the gym yet. I knew where Elian was, but the rest of the class wasn't in sight. Ms. S said she'd seen them, but she didn't see them anymore. 

Me: "Yeah, but I trust them."

And sure enough, when we finally got let into the gym and found the section where the sophomores were supposed to sit, the entire rest of the class was sitting there, together. 

My trust wasn't misplaced. 

Elian? I'm not sure where he got to, but I did see him enter the gym. So, at least he was nominally where he was supposed to be. 

After the assembly, the rest of the class got back to the classroom in a timely manner. Elian? He took his time, but he eventually returned. 

It's too bad my time with them was over. I had just gotten to the point where Elian was on my radar. Although, considering how many days he had been absent, that might not have been much of a consequence for Elian.