Second Day Drama

Thursday. Fifth period. 

So, well, um, the continuation high school starts early. Some years I get work, some years I don't. 

It was only their second day of school, so students aren't sure of their schedules. And I don't take roll first thing. I always get them going on the assignment before I figure out who is absent. Usually this works out just fine... 

So, I was looking at the roll. And I realized that I had a student who did not belong in the class. I had seen him the day before. I checked, and he was supposed to be in my sixth period. No biggie. He could explain to his fifth period teacher where he was, and if the teacher needed verification I would give it. 

Only, something else was happening at that moment... 

I was only half listening. Something something someone's girlfriend. And Travis was looking at her? Only, Travis got very upset at the accusation, because he said he knew she was dating someone, and he wasn't looking at her? I don't know, it was a ridiculous disagreement. 

But Travis.

Some people just aren't quite able to get along. You know who I mean. The kind of person who blows up for no reason whatsoever. 

On Wednesday, I had given Travis the assignment. And he complained. Loudly. The lines he was supposed to draw hurt his hand. And he was sure Mr. G wouldn't make him complete the assignment. (Continuation high school. If he didn't do the assignment he wouldn't get the credits for it. There would be other assignments he could get the credits for later.) 

I wasn't in the mood for an argument, so I moved on. Travis sat in the back far corner, and he did (or did not do) his work. Fine. 

But this time Travis wasn't going to let the whole "looking at the girlfriend" go. Andres said something that set Travis off. And Travis was getting louder and louder about it. 

At roughly the same time, I asked Andres what class he was supposed to be in. He realized he was supposed to be in my sixth period. I asked him to go to his actual fifth period. And Andres was willing to go. 

Only, Travis wasn't backing down. Travis was taunting Andres. Challenging him. Making it as if Andres leaving the class was Andres running away from him. Because Travis could take him. Travis was tough, and he would mess Andres up. 

I picked up the classroom phone and dialed security. 

Andres got up. Headed out. Travis continued his taunting. 

I told security that maybe they were settling... 

Andres left. Travis got up from his seat and followed him out. 

Nope, I told security. Fight incoming... 

But small school. The boys were facing off outside, but five other staff members (including security) were there before it came to blows. 

Whew. Fight averted. 

We shooed the students back to class (because everyone left their classes when it looked like a fight was starting) while Travis and Andres were escorted to the office. 

I did not see Travis again that day. Andres showed up on time to sixth period. 

It's been a while since I witnessed a near fight. Glad that sort of thing doesn't happen every day. 

After school and the next day I talked to other adults on campus, and I got a clearer picture of what that dispute was all about. 

Andres' girlfriend had reported to the administration that Travis had been "watching" her, and I heard he was doing other things that were making her uncomfortable. (Andres and his girlfriend have a baby daughter.) Andres had mentioned to Travis that he should stay away from her. Rather than backing off, Travis doubled down. 

And, apparently Andres was nowhere near stone cold sober that day (hence not realizing he was in the wrong class). 

Restroom Break

Tuesday. Fifth period.

It was the independent work portion of the period. I had gone over some problems (we've started the probability unit, so they were doing practice problems on things like, "How many possible ice cream cones can you make with 3 cone types, 5 ice cream flavors, and 3 toppings?"), and it was their turn to try them on their own. 

The students weren't having too much trouble with the concepts, so Ms. L and I were at the front of the room, waiting for questions. A student approached. 

"Jeff got in a fight. Now he's in the discipline office."

Both Ms. L and I looked over at Jeff's desk. His computer was open. His notes were sitting there. His backpack was leaning against the bottom of the chair. 

Ms. L: "He just left to go to the restroom..."

He hadn't been gone all that long. Definitely not long enough for either of us to be concerned. But now we knew he wasn't going to return.

Deep sigh.

(How did the student know? I assume that Jeff texted him, and he conveyed the information to us.) 

We continued on. At the end of the period, all the students cleared out. Jeff's stuff remained at his desk. 

After fifth period was lunch. Security arrived a few minutes into lunch to retrieve Jeff's stuff. (The computer belonged to the classroom, so I logged Jeff out and returned it to charge.) 

Some students give off a certain vibe. You know they're trouble. Jeff? Not so much. He's a good kid who's doing fairly well in class. So, I was shocked. But really, at that age, I shouldn't be that shocked.

Fight Fight Fight

It was the Thursday before a three-day weekend (for Veteran's Day), and so, of course there were more teacher absences than subs available. I was asked to cover a class on my conference period. As I wasn't scrambling for anything, I was quite happy to help out. (It doesn't hurt that I get paid extra for covering another class.)

I had a choice, so I picked the class that was closest to the room I was in the rest of the day. (Mr. B's classroom is kind of back of beyond compared to the rest of the campus.) It was chemistry.

It was the first class of the day. I got a chance to chat with Ms. N before she left. (She was chaperoning a field trip.) She mentioned that the class was small and her best behaved. 

I recognized a couple students from success seminar last year. (Not problem students, like Kress.) 

As advertised, they got to work and weren't an issue.

Because of the weather, I had left the door open.

It was more than halfway through the period. Suddenly, a cacophony of voices erupted somewhere outside. It was such a sudden change and loud enough that we all knew what was happening.

A fight.

I've been proximate to enough of these to recognize the sounds. As had the students. Someone noted that it sounded like a fight. After less than a minute, I heard a golf cart speed by. (Security all drive golf carts on campus.) 

The thing that I didn't expect? Not one student moved from their seats. 

We all heard it. Usually, half the class would have run to the door to look out and see if they could see what was happening. This time? Not. A. One.

I was so shocked, but I said nothing. I didn't want to give them any ideas.

The noise quieted down fairly quickly. I assume several security descended upon the fight and removed the combatants. That's generally how these things go.

The chemistry students continued to work on their assignments. (They were practicing dealing with significant figures.) 

I was so impressed by them not reacting to the fight that I made sure to mention this in my note to their teacher. They deserve kudos for things like this.

The Shoving Match

It's been a while since I had one of these.

Eighth grade science. Friday. Third period.

About a third of the class had left for a field trip. That middle school has been doing some reward things for kiddos who maintain a certain GPA and have no discipline issues. So, basically, the "good kids" had gone.

For those who were left, I told them what their assignment was, and they got to work.

We had been in class for a bit. I had finished taking roll. They were working, albeit loudly.

Then, Jeremy got up for something. As he passed Samuel's desk, he knocked everything off of it.

Eighth graders are clumsy. They're knocking things over all the time. I highly doubt Jeremy meant any malice.

But Samuel was seeing red. He jumped out of his seat and went at Jeremy. And the two were suddenly in a tussle. Arms outstretched, it almost looked like Samuel wanted to strangle Jeremy. They shoved each other back and forth.

Of course, when something like this happens, there's stuff between me and the combatants. Not that I really wanted to get in the middle of it anyway. I made a futile attempt to get them to stop. Some other students intervened to pull them apart. And while I hoped it would end on its own, I knew what I had to do.

It was time to call security.

Since I call security so rarely, I had to look up what number to dial. I got the voicemail of the first person I tried. (Security isn't really at their extension, so I really need to call someone who has a walkie-talkie to notify them.)

And this is where the altercation ended. Both boys were back in their seats.

However, that was a fight, and I have a zero tolerance policy regarding fights in class. If I let them stay after that, I've lost the rest of the class.

I dialed the phone again.

Jeremy approached. He begged me to not call security. It was all over. And no one had thrown any punches.

This was true, but I have a zero tolerance policy because of experience. (I don't mean horseplay or mock fighting. I mean actual anger in the altercation.) If I let them stay, an already difficult class would get so much worse.

So, I dialed again, and this time I got through. Both boys sat in their seats, saying nothing.

Security came and removed them from class.

Only later did I learn this was her difficult group. So, I totally made the right call.

Now, perhaps I'm good for another several years until another one of these happens on my watch.

Samuel stopped by after class looking for candy he had left in the room. He told me that Jeremy had accidentally knocked the stuff off his desk. I wasn't surprised. Maybe next time Samuel will ask for an apology rather than losing his cool.

Reading Them the Riot Act

It was day 2 of the terrible, awful, no good 7th grade math class. Periods 1/2 (I had the same group for two periods) was actually kind of cooperative. At least, they were easier to deal with than on day 1.

4th period went nominally better. That could have been because I kicked one girl out fairly early. Unfortunately she returned...

Between the periods, the kiddos get to get up and walk around. They go outside. It's a nice break, and I'm more than happy to let them have it.

But something wasn't right. I can't tell you exactly what it was. A mood. A feeling. The kiddos were outside on the lawn, and they were all focused on the same thing.

A fight was coming.

I didn't hear the argument. But I've been in this situation a couple times before, and I recognize the signs.

It was almost time for the passing period to end, so I waved them all inside.

And it got worse.

There was an argument happening, and one girl was pretty upset. The others weren't helping matters. So, I did the only thing I could do--I called the office.

The classroom was fairly close to the office, so within seconds, the kiddos saw the principal coming our way. Suddenly, silence.

When she arrived, I let her know that a fight was imminent. She let the class know she was not pleased with their behavior. And she got to the bottom of the incident. Turns out that the troublemaker girl I threw out the previous period was angry at another girl over a boy.

Naturally.

Issues removed from class, and things settled. For a bit.

Just in Time

I have been witness to three fights in school since I started subbing. This one is my favorite. (I think this was the third.)

10th grade English class. They were supposed to be reading silently for a half hour. They were silent, but not everyone was actually reading. But as I had silence, I was happy enough.

Then, out of nowhere, one of the girls started yelling at another girl. (Seriously, it went from silent to yelling in an instant.) I didn't catch all of it. Something about "saying things" and "tell me to my face".

I recognized that level of anger. I tried to calm and shush, but the angry girl was having none of it. The other girl appeared shocked at the whole thing.

Yelling and posturing followed. I made my way over to the classroom phone and called for help. At this point, the rest of the class had gotten into it, encouraging the two girls to fight it out, so when I finally got another person on the end of the line, she heard that trouble was coming even though the actual fight hadn't started.

I suppose I should have gotten into the middle of this. I could have yelled (but I would have been drowned out by the chaos of the room). And angry girl was very, very angry. She was having none of my calming, so I stood and waited.

The room was set up with three groupings of chairs--one along the back wall, one along the door wall behind the door, and a small one in front of the door wall in front of the door. In the middle of the room was a big open space. Perfect for a fight.

At this point, both angry girl and quiet girl were in the same row in the grouping behind the door. They were close to each other (maybe two chairs separated them), but the rows were too close together for anything to start. They would have to position themselves in the open space in the middle of the room.

Angry girl threw down her binder and stood.

The door to the classroom opened. Security had arrived.

Angry girl had started moving forward, but the door opened as she was moving, so instead of turning left and heading towards the center of the room, she turned right and walked out the door. As if that had been her intent all along.

Security looked at the other girl. "You too."

And the fight was over.

One of the boys who had been encouraging the fight said to me: "Why did you have to call security? I wanted to see the fight."

A second security person arrived. (It had been so loud that the teacher next door also called for backup.) And somehow we managed to get the class settled.

Of course, I ran into the teacher a few days after this. I did not get the reaction I expected.

The teacher knew a fight was coming. She was surprised at the combatants. Mostly because quiet girl hadn't been coming to school, so her even being there that day was unusual.

I don't know if I ever saw quiet girl again. Angry girl ended up at the continuation high school the next year. As did the boy who wanted to see the fight.

To this day (and it's been a few years), I can still vividly see angry girl standing, throwing down her binder, starting forward, and then walking out the door. Security had perfect timing.

The Fight

I have had four in-classroom fights in my career as a sub. The fourth happened on Friday.

It was the same opportunity class that I've talked about so many times before. I thought they were difficult when I had five students. Currently, the class contains 18 (although 6 of them were absent). And a couple of them were just itching to get into it, anything, with someone.

Jonah's thing was making wadded up paper balls. Big ones. He'd take a sheet of paper, wad it up, then add a second, then a third, until the thing was softball sized. This didn't bother me. At least he was doing something that wasn't antagonizing someone else. I warned him, though. As soon as he threw it, I was going to kick him out of class.

Jose had to argue with everything I asked him to do...

(Okay, I know that it's not a good idea to have two characters with names that start with the same letter. And yes, these names are not the students' actual names. But both boys' names did start with the same letter, did sound similar, and were hard for me to keep track of.)

Jose was the tough guy. Later I learned that the rest of the students were a bit afraid of him. They would do what Jose asked of them. Too bad he didn't use his powers for good.

It was passing period for the rest of the school. Three boys decided that they wanted to leave the class, so I got them back in the room. I shut the door, and the class exploded (figuratively).

The next happened so fast that I have a hard time keeping the timeline straight. But first, I got hit in the back of the neck by one of those flying paper balls. I went to call the office for backup as someone was going to leave, I just wasn't sure who yet. And that's when Jonah threw his softball-sized paper ball, hitting Jose.

In the midst of this, I talked to the office and told them that I needed assistance.

Jose wasn't about to take this insult, so he jumped over a table and flew at Jonah, swinging his fists. Jonah defended himself. I yelled, but I wasn't stupid enough to jump between the two of them.

Then it was over. I'm not sure if the door opened before or after the two boys separated. Behind the door stood five adults including a counselor, the principal, and security. Jonah and Jose left, and then it was a matter of settling the rest of the group.

The class was not pleased with me. They argued that Jose was just responding to Jonah's thrown paper ball. I disagreed. Jonah was gone the moment he threw his ball. Jose only made the situation worse.

But in the end, two of the worst offenders were gone for the rest of the day. This helped me, if only a little.

I understand why the teacher needed a break from this group. I don't know how she does her job every day.

Beyond My Control

This incident happened a few years ago, pre-blog.  I always meant to write a post about it, but with one thing or another, I've either forgotten about it, or I had something more interesting to say.  I'm not sure why I remembered it today, but I figured it was about time I recorded it.

I was covering a 10th grade English class.  They were supposed to be reading silently.  The silent was working, but for the most part they weren't reading.  There was too much writing going on for me to believe that they were doing their reading.  I had to keep after them to keep the silent, so that's primarily what I was doing.

Then, out of nowhere, this girl who was sitting in the back of the room yelled, "If you have something to say, say it to me!"

She was angry.  I attempted to insert myself into the conversation and calm things down, but the girl was way too angry for that.  The girl she was yelling at was now yelling back.

I knew where this was going.  I walked to the back of the room to the phone.  I dialed security.

I'm pretty sure I had to redial security before I got through.  I identified myself to the lady who answered, and then I told her that I was about to have a fight in the classroom.  She replied that she could tell (the whole class was into it by now, and it was very loud), and she would send someone right away.

I hung up, and I watched the proceedings.  I probably should have tried a little harder to restore calm.  In my defense, I had started there, but I had been ignored.

The instigator had had enough, so she stood up, and as she stood she threw her folder down on her desk.  She started towards the other girl.  The other girl was seated three seats in front of the instigator, and she started to back up.  They headed for the center of the room.

This classroom was set up so that the teacher had a lot of room to roam in the center.  The seats were kind of in corners, and the center was empty space.  So, it was a good location to begin the fight.

At that moment, the classroom door opened, and one of the security ladies stood there.  The instigator, already moving forward at this point, continued walking straight out the door.  It looked as if she had intended to go outside the entire time as she didn't even hesitate a step.  Security looked at the other girl and indicated that she should come on outside too.

That's when the second security lady showed up.  (Later, the teacher next door said that she heard the commotion and had called for backup as well.)

I attempted to restore calm.  One boy complained, "Why did you have to call security?  I wanted to see the fight."

A couple days after this, I ran into the teacher who I had been subbing for.  I had, of course, written about the whole incident in my report to her.

The teacher told me that she had been expecting a fight, but she had not expected that the instigating girl would be in it.  She was surprised because the instigating girl had been absent more than present all year.

The next time I ran into the instigating girl, she was at the continuation high school.  And the complaining boy? He also ended up there.

This happened long enough ago that those two are no longer in school.  I know the complaining boy graduated, but as for the girl, I never heard.

The fight had something to do with the second girl.  I was told that she had been spreading rumors about the instigating girl.  Her "friend" told her of this while they were supposed to be reading.

I didn't get the class back to reading.  Luckily, there was another assignment to distract them, and the class, while never getting back to calm, wasn't too bad once they were working.