The Visitor

In seventh period there are two students enrolled who have not attended since I took over the success seminar class. So, last Wednesday when a new-to-me student showed up and sat in one of their seats, I assumed he was one of those students. 

"Visiting" is something that only really happens to subs. A student who is not enrolled in the class shows up, pretends to be a student in the class, and plays around. 

The day's lesson was on digital zombies. It hadn't gone well all day. (Too many of them displayed the traits we were discussing in the lesson, ignoring the whole point.) But seventh period...

Someone started whistling. I'd stop talking, the whistling would stop, so then I'd restart what I was trying to say, and then the whistling would start up again. 

They were throwing things. Someone played a high pitched tone on an electronic device (computer or phone, I'm not sure). And then there was the usual inattention and talking over me while I tried to go over what they were supposed to learn. 

It was a long, hard day. 

Somehow, me and the visitor (Kevin) got into a conversation about grades. I went to look "his" up, and he let me know that who I was looking up wasn't him.

That was his mistake. 

Because now I knew he didn't belong in the class.

He swore up and down that this was his class. A couple students chimed in to say that it was his class. But he wasn't on my roll sheet, and he'd been a major disruption, so he had to go. He begged. Couldn't he just stay today? 

I said his seventh period teacher had to be missing him. Where was he supposed to be? He didn't know, he claimed. So, I told him he had to go to the guidance office so they could tell him. 

Oh, he didn't want to leave. But finally I persuaded him to go. Only, he wanted a paper pass. I didn't have any. With the hall pass app, passes are all electronic. I got his "barcode" (but he made sure to put his thumb across his name--not very subtly) and input an office hall pass. 

And then I went to look up his name. The barcode is the student ID number, but it inputs in the system with a name. That I can easily access. 

Kevin returned. He "remembered" that he had dropped his seventh period so he no longer had a class. I told him to leave. He resisted, claiming a sun allergy. 

He left when I promised that I would next be calling security to have him removed. 

After doing a bit of research, I learned that Kevin was well-known to the office staff. Also, he's a BEST student (this used to be called opportunity, but basically it's a self-contained class where problem behavior students are segregated from the campus at large, kind of a precursor to the alternative education center). And he never had success seminar. 

So, I reported his antics to his BEST teacher, to the discipline office, and to Mrs. B. Mrs. B remembers him from her days working the discipline office, so when he tried this game before, she didn't let him in. 

And they looped in his basketball coach, the athletic director, and his mom. 

I doubt I'll see Kevin again (unless I pull a day covering the BEST class). 

Play stupid games, "win" stupid prizes.