Repeat Performance

I just went looking through my blog archives for a post I thought I had written. Apparently, I did not. 

When I started covering Ms. A's English classes, I saw a few familiar faces. (Well more than a few as the eleventh graders I've had in many classes over the years.) Namely: Austin. (This is the Austin who takes forever whenever he's given a restroom pass.) 

Since the fall semester, the school has instituted a "floaters list". (This is not what they call it, but the continuation high school has a similar list, and that's what they've dubbed it, so that's what I call it.) Any student who's on the list doesn't just get to use the restroom. If they want to use the restroom, they need an "escort" (read: security). 

Students on the list have demonstrated that they spend too much time outside of class when granted restroom passes. So, they no longer get to go unmonitored. When they request a pass, I call for security. The security person goes with them and returns them to class.

I was not surprised to find Austin's name on the list. I covered his chemistry class the first time I learned of the list. And, of course Austin had to go at some point during class. (He made a fuss. I thought I had blogged about this. I guess something else more interesting happened that week.) 

The first day I covered this English class, Austin had to use the restroom. And as I was very familiar with the length of time he spends out of class, I knew immediately I had to call security. 

Austin claimed that his name was no longer on the list. I didn't even dignify that with a snort. 

What's truly funny is the security person who arrives greets Austin and Austin greets him. They are very familiar with one another, like as if Austin sees him a couple times a day. 

So, last week Austin requested a restroom pass. Of course. And, even though we had the same conversation the previous week, he claimed that he was no longer on the list. 

(Since it had been a while since I'd seen him, I did request a copy of the list. Austin's still on it. It was still the same list I had seen before. No changes had been made.)

Deep sigh. I don't know why Austin plays this game. I suppose he's bored. I guess that as I haven't seen him turn in one assignment in the three weeks I've been covering his English class. (I peeked at his grades. I was unsurprised to find that he's getting an F.)