The Aftermath

I have told you about my threat. Now I would like to tell you about the aftermath. I went and talked to the principal on Monday morning (remember this all happened on Friday). Much to my surprise, I was entitled to union representation even though I was a sub. I was not happy at all about the way in which the school handled the situation.
To begin with, I was basically told without actually coming out and saying it that once I filed a police report the school's hands were tied. I had better be ready to testify in a court hearing if it came to that. The principal stuck up for the kid's gifted background and almost nonexistent discipline record. After all, I did say that I did not fell threatened. The principal was entirely convinced that the graffiti and the poem were not connected. I told him as politely as I could that I did not agree with him. You cannot tell me that the poem and graffiti are not connected. The graffiti references a poem and has a bowling ball in it. I received a poem set at a bowling alley. That is too much of a coincidence. If the same student did not write the poem and graffiti, then the person who did the graffiti knew about the poem. I also emphasized that once the graffiti surfaced I felt quite threatened. I was told that any write-up I did on my student would have to leave out any reference to the graffiti.
I wrote the student up for threatening a staff member. That offense requires the immediate removal of the student from the property pending a superintendent level hearing within the school, which in my opinion should have occurred on Friday once the graffiti had surfaced. Until the school could disprove a connection between the two the student should not have been allowed on campus. Instead, the kid sat in my class on Friday. I had to look at him after security pulled me aside to show me the graffiti that had been discovered. That was not an easy thing to do.
Later on that day, I was approached by another administrator and urged to send an email regarding how threatened I felt. It was explained to me that the only communication I had sent to the principal was that I did not feel threatened. Due to that fact the the board at the hearing would look at the email and reduce the offense and punishment as well. So, I sent another email to the principal clarifying that in light of finding my car unlocked (I could not mention the graffiti otherwise the write would be thrown out) I did indeed feel threatened. It had to be done via email so there would be a paper trail.
My student miraculously received a hearing the next day at 8:30 am. This is remarkable since any other student must wait weeks for a hearing. I was told by the school police liaison that the kid's parents made a big stink about the situation. They called and requested to meet with the principal that day. They just did not understand what big deal was about. It was just a joke. So, they got their hearing the next day. The kid was punished with 5 days of out of school suspension.
I am furious with the way in which the situation was handled from the start. Not only that, not once has the principal ever asked me how I was doing. NOT ONCE! Even since then, I have emailed the head principal regarding the outcome of the superintendent hearing. He has forwarded to another principal. I guess I would have thought that given the severity of the situation he would have personally responded to me. No. I have no respect left for him, which is sad. However, he has disrespected me. I guess that adds insult to injury. I used to think there would be nothing better than to get a job at this school. Now, I don't think I want to work for them. Not if they handle threats to staff members by sweeping it under the rug and slapping the culprit on the wrist. No one seems to look past the boy's apparent giftedness to see how disturbing his actions really were. That is frustrating. It has left me feeling violated and disrespected. The school cannot provide for my safety regardless of what they think. The principal is so worried about opening outside doors in the spring/fall and enforcing the dress code to ensure for student safety, but when a legitimate threat arise to one of his staff members he blows it off.
The last straw, though, was when I learned that this student of mine was going to compete this week in what amounts to our school's version of a male beauty pageant. Isn't that something! You can threaten a teacher, and then you can represent the school in this competition!!
On a positive note, my fellow staff members have been awesome through this ordeal. They have given me the support that administration never did. They have walked me to my car, offered to cover for me if I needed it, offered to march to the principal's office to lodge a complaint, and so much more. They were outraged and disappointed to know that this is how their administration keeps them safe. It was nice to know that what happened mattered in their eyes, even if it appears that it didn't in the eyes of administration.

The Threat

In August I was called and asked to sub for an English teacher that would be retiring. I was told it would be at least 2 weeks but no more than 4 weeks. A whole semester later the school finally found a full time replacement. I should also add that I do not have an English background. I had a lot of ups and downs. I was able to experience some things I never had an opportunity to experience before. I was able to hold conferences, participate in PD days, and be a part of creating curriculum. Perhaps most valuable to me, I was able to be a part of the most wonderful staff I have ever had the privilege to work with.
I also experienced the worst thing I have ever had to experience in my life. I was threatened by a student. The whole thing is still fresh. It happened less than two weeks ago. The assignment was to write a poem about the moon. We had been studying poetry the entire marking period and now it was my students' turn to show me what they had learned. One of my student proudly boasted that his poem was about me dying. On Friday I read the poems and much to my surprise his poem was not about me dying. It was about me being shot at the bowling alley I work at on the weekends. I immediately took it to some of my colleagues to see how I should handle the situation (write-up, zero, both). The head of the department made a copy and gave it to the principal. I was then told that the principal wanted to know what my reaction was to the poem. At that time, I thought the kid was trying to be funny. I sent an email to the principal stating that. I waited and waited and waited for a reply, which would not come until almost the end of the day. I was told by the department head that the student would be pulled out of class and "talked to." Whatever talking to entails.
I was in the class with the kid who wrote the poem when the phone rang. The department head was on the phone. She said, " Karen, there is a situation. I need you to step outside your classroom. Security is waiting for you, but they will be around the corner. Can you go do this right away?" I did as I was told. I closed the door behind me. Silly me, I was worried about leaving the kids unattended. I should have been worried about me. Two security guards asked me about my student that wrote the poem. Then they should me a picture of some graffiti that had been discovered in another wing of the school. I immediately began to tear up, my heart raced, and I started to loose it. They were trying to calm me down as they pointed out the graffiti was another poem. The culprit had disguised the letter "a" with gunshots every time it was used. After school I was looking at the picture of the graffiti, and I noticed that one of the "D's" had a bowling ball in it. This was too much of a coincidence. I immediately went to an assistant administrator. She called the student's mother.
I called my parents from school, and they told me to meet them at the police station. It was closed, but an officer was sent to my house. I filed a police report. They also sent a state police bomb sniffing dog to search my car because when I went out to my car it was unlocked. I distinctly remember locking it in the morning. I was told not to go in to work that weekend. I spent the remainder of my weekend trying to get the events of the day out of my head, and contemplating whether I really wanted to teach or not.

Kids these days

I've always wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a little girl. Of course, like most adolescents I deviate from that plan. I wanted to be a psychologist, a physical therapist, a professional musician, and an optometrist. The last choice was one my parents were really pushing for. You know, low stress, nice hours, high income. So, when in my senior year of high school I decided that I really did want to be a teacher (and a high school teacher at that) my parents thought I was crazy. They did all the things parents usually do: they told me how great my life would be as an optometrist, they told me how disrespectful "kids these days" seem to be, and when they realized I was serious about teaching they supported me.
When I graduated from college and the market was tight I had to sub. Any of you who have subbed know how hard it is. I've been really lucky, though. I bounced around several schools before finding one that I have been able to call home for the last 2 and half years. I have worked pretty steadily since then. I'm a tough sub. I have to be. It is the only way that the kids will take me seriously, and the teachers will respect me. I don't kid myself, not all of the kids at the school I sub for like me. That's okay with me. I have a job to do and that is to make sure the students do what the regular teacher intended for them to do. I've been around long enough that most of the students know that they are going to work when I'm there. I will write them up if they misbehave. While I could probably write a book about all of the crazy things a substitute school teacher encounters, I won't. All I want is to get my foot in the door of a wonderful school district and hold on until a full time position opens up.
Subbing is not the greatest gig in the world. However, I've stuck it out for the past 4 years hoping someday a position would open up that I would be lucky enough to get. Every time my parents brought up being an optometrist or my grandmother mentioned getting a "real job," I would tell them how crucial subbing was to landing that full time teaching job. Then, something happened to me that I never saw coming. It shook me to my core and made me question every decision I had ever made to pursue teaching as a career. I was threatened by a student. Threatened makes it sound somewhat civil. There was nothing civil about it. This student wrote a poem about me being shot at my second job. All of a sudden, all of those questions my parents had asked me when I chose to major in education came rushing back to me. Was I sure I wanted to deal with high schoolers for a living. Yes, I knew they could have attitudes and be disrespectful, but is this what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life. For the first time in my life, I found myself saying "kids these days." What is wrong with the kids these days?