Off the Handle

Today was supposed to be a babysitting day. It was the last day before Pesach vacation for the seventh grade and I planned a very light day. I had planned on giving the girls time to do their picture books, and then I prepared an open-notes history review. I didn't tell them about it, because I didn't want them to study. It wasn't even going to be marked as a test.
But my plans were ruined.
The Hebrew principal's father passed away, and she was sitting shiva. The school arranged for the students to go and visit her. Believe it or not, it snowed today, in the middle of April! I was panicking about having to walk out in the snow and slush, but the school finally arranged a bus to take us to where the Hebrew principal was sitting shiva.
It was a little uncomfortable for the girls to sit with her, but they handled it very nicely.
S.G.L. was back in school after playing hooky for 3 days, and the principal gave her some extra special attention.
When we came back to school, I did current events for 10 minutes while my co read an article to the other class. We switched off until recess.
After recess, I gave both classes my review.
The 7a class was slightly upset, but the 7b class was furious. They were so bad, they didn't even let my co give out the papers.
I went into the class, told them to shut up, and gave them out. I threatened to mark the papers as a test if they didn't cooperate, and they got even edgier.
T.K. burst into tears, so I sent her out so I could talk to her privately.
As I went into the hallway, I met the principal. She was coming into the class to give out the honor roll certificates. I stopped her and explained the situation in the classroom. She was pretty upset. She went in and spoke to them while I dealt with T.K. outside. I sent T.K. in after she washed the floor with me, and then I walked in to hear what the principal was saying.
She was telling the class that this was classwork and that I had every right to give it to them. She actually stuck up for me.
R.S. was telling her that whenever she took tests she became stressed and that her mother didn't want her that way.
"Well I know you mother pretty well," the principal said, "and I know that she wouldn't like your tone of voice either."
R.S. then crumpled up her paper and threw it at the principal. She kept throwing paper after paper and then she began screaming at the principal. "Everything is an assignment. Your stupid picture book is a stupid assignment, it's not! It's a project! You all lie to us, and you put us under so much pressure!"
The principal tried calming her down, but by this time the class was involved, some girls were laughing, others were scared.
At that time, R.S. yelled, "I hate you! Get out of here! I never want to see you and your stupid ugly suit again!" She grabbed the principal by the hand and twisted her wrist. I took the initiative to send the class to the other classroom to continue their tests.
As the class filed out, the principal acme over to me and asked me to have the secretary call R.S.'s mother. R.S. came up behind the principal and grabbed her by the jacket and shook and pulled her. I settled the class in the 7a classroom, and had the secretary call Mrs. R.S.
The secretary wanted to know whether the mother should one down to school, and I went back to the room to ask the principal.
You were able to hear R.S. screaming down the hallway. She was yelling at the principal to leave her alone and to leave the classroom. She kept screaming, "I let go of you, now get out!" She threw books across the room as she continued to yell.
When the principal kept trying to talk to her, R.S. began hitting her.
The principal left the room to talk to me, and then she asked me to watch R.S. to make sure she didn't hurt herself. R.S. stood blocking the door and I stood outside in the hallway.
I switched off with my co so that I could answer some questions the girls had, and they were more than a little wacky because of the event that was taking place.
The principal came in later and spoke to the girls to explain to them the situation, and to tell them not to judge their friend for having a temper problem. I thought that was very good of her.
She also calmed down the girls by telling them again that classwork was totally fine, and that I would be very lenient in marking them.
About a half hour to dismissal, I asked the girls to pass up their papers even though they weren't finished. R.H. put up a huge fuss, and I almost had a panic attack as well.
I finally got them all together, and had them all clean up their desks and put away their books for Pesach.
While the girls were busy, a few of them crowded around my desk to talk. I didn't mind, and we had a good talk on what to do when the class gets rowdy. They all agreed that as soon as I said that they were too rowdy they would stop. They didn't want me to get strict with them.
They also asked me to move up to 8th grade with them. LOL
C.K. wanted to know why I only called on certain girls all the time. I explained to her that it was the girls that constantly contributed to the lesson that I wanted to hear from. If C.K. didn't add to my lesson, she certainly shouldn't feel like I was obligated to call on her every time she raised her hand.
Anyway, The girls mainly left happy, and my co and I spent time in the teacher's room talking about R.S.'s incident, and then my co put two and two together. "Is R.S. the girl that wrote on her index card that she went to anger management classes after school?"
My co is good!
I am so shocked at the whole incident. I knew she had a problem, but to come out like this? It bowls me over.
S.G.L. was finally in school and really acting weird. She began this thing again where she kept turning around and facing backwards when the teacher was in class. She was on the steps today when I walked upstairs, and when she saw me, she gave a little shriek and made a show of running up the stairs and "escaping" from me. Her new friend C.O. was downstairs laughing at the whole thing. It just got me nervous.
My co had to tutor her after school, I'm just glad it's not me.
..And I'm more than glad that Pesach vacation is here, which means that I don't have to go back to school until April 23.
Ahhhhhh....Relief!