What Will They Say About Me When I Die?

While I understand that death may be an uncomfortable topic of discussion for many, I can't say I've really ever had that issue. I think I may actually gain my sanity once I leave this world and have a bit of peace. Currently, I spend my days questioning so many things that occur and trying to understand my purpose in the midst of it all. And, Jesus usually responds quickly or there's some delay. I am okay with this.

Death isn't really the subject I am reflecting on today. The title of this entry came about when driving home; it was in the lyrics of the song I was playing. Immediately, the answer that came to mind was: mean lady!

I spend a good part of my day handling discipline cases, and today was no different than others. In fact, I hit the ground running right after the 7:30 IEP meeting held before school. As I came up to the office and sat down to go through my email inbox that had quickly collected messages, one of our front office secretaries came back to alert me that a parent really needed to see me. Parents tend not to care about setting appointments or valuing time when it comes to their child, which is understandable on many levels. They do not always think about the possible steps/interventions that could occur before coming straight to an administrator; however, it's nature of the beast and I am usually willing to accommodate.

I asked the secretary to give me about 5 minutes and I'd be out to see him. I sat for a minute and organized my desk and responded to an email, got up and went to see how my day was going to unravel...

Dad was in to report an issue from our Valentine's Day dance on Friday. He (and his wife) were highly upset with a situation that happened to their son while at the dance. The kid is a little bitty thing, and a HUGE seventh grader had tried to stuff his head in the toilet. No laughing, people...you can't make this stuff up. Now, I was aware of the situation on Friday, but what I can share is on a Friday night coming off of any holiday week that may have involved candy, I am not trying to handle discipline issues at a dance. Rather, the aim is to put out fires because issues are just expected. Teachers don't volunteer to chaperone, and the parents are too scared to say anything, leaving administration and whatever school personnel sponsoring the event to handle about 200-400 children going nuts in a gym.

When the issue was brought to my attention, one of our teachers was chewing the 7th grader out for his behavior. She questioned why he was trying to put the kid's head in the toilet. The response was, "He took my soda!" Of course, the response was, "No, I didn't!" Again, people--no laughing. I work with middle schoolers, and this is typical behavior. Anyway, the 7th grader was in the wrong and he apologized to the 6th grader, they shook hands and he went on his way. I asked the 6th grader if he was okay, and he shook his head yes. He had a soda in his hand, a friend by his side, and no tears in his eyes. I thought to myself: EASY. Problem solved!

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong! Now, a parent sat in my office and questioned how I dealt with the issue. Further, he took on the role of threatening me with how many parents in the community knew about the situation and that none of them were ever bringing their kids to a dance. (SIGH) I HATE when parents throw out crazy threats. I can't begin to share how many people were pleased with the dance, and there really no issues the entire night.

Anyway, I talked with the parent and put his mind at ease, sharing how we deal with discipline at our dances. Dad put his kid out there when I asked him to give me a full report of what occurred. He shared that his son provoked the 7th grader when he threw soda at him---UM, not a smart move as a 6th grader, friends. Dad left and stopped threatening to press charges; he wouldn't have had a case--I checked with our school resource officer. So, discipline issue numero 1 was on the desk to resolve.

I moved to unfinished cases from Friday.

My Friday was a day from...Well, I will leave you to fill in the blank. Two fights, Two bus issues, Three assemblies, a Staff Development Guru in house, and millions of events in between. I spent my day dealing with two bus investigations. One had to do with a kid having a razor blade on his person and slicing bus seats. The other was involving a group of kiddos that thought it would be fun to light matches on the back of the bus and then throw the evidence out of the window before turning in to the school grounds. Let's just say the former was an easier case than the latter. I had a two hour meeting with the parents of slicer child. And, we had to interview about 10 kids on the bus to get anywhere on the fire-starters. The hardest catch to this was the kid being accused has a mother who is clueless that her child isn't innocent. The kid has her so fooled and she has an excuse for every conduct referral written on him. It's really very sad and quite draining.

So, what will they call me when I die? Simply put: A mean lady. My days being filled with discipline issues must come to a stop soon. My main focus of instructional leadership has to be found and implemented. And, maybe I won't be known as the mean lady because the kids won't be doing crazy stuff!