Anyone Have a Gun?

I had the most miserable birthday ever. Besides for some personal issues that put me down really bad, I got a call from my co that she was not going to be in today either.
She arranged for a substitute so that the classes wouldn't be flying for three days in a row.
I created a fun sheet for the girls to do after they had finished my co's work, and I spent all morning feeling really down.
Once in school things didn't get any better. I was lonely in the teacher's room because my co wasn't there, and I really wasn't in the mood of facing a class.
The classes were dismissed late to lunch, so I was asked to walk in 10 minutes late.
My principal took advantage of my extra time and called me into her office. She had a problem with me...again.
It seems that some mothers had called her to complain that their daughters hadn't done anything for the paper. They were upset that I did it all on my own. The principal suggested that for our next paper I let the girls do it all.
I lost it. I told her that her precious girls had all decided to miss our paper meeting in favor of a color war rally. This was a week before everything was due in. I set out their jobs for them then, thinking that I was doing them a huge favor, but they didn't do a thing!
Two days before the deadline R.S. and C.S. came over to complain that they had nothing to put into our Shavuos section of the paper. That meant I had to stay up till 3 googling Shavuos pages.
The features basically did everything themselves, and everyone else did their jobs. I have a feeling it was either R.S.'s or C.S.'s mother who called. Probably R.S. C.S.'s mother is not the type.
I told the principal that there would not be another paper for the end of the school year. I was not going to work so hard only to have mothers calling to complain. And then she still had the nerve to call me in and take their side. This was HER newspaper I'm doing, I'm not getting paid for it, and she still has the NERVE?
Anyway, she was done talking, but I had something to tell her. I told her about my birthday story yesterday and how I was disgusted with the way the girls behaved.
Guess what she said?
It was all my fault.
It's my fault because I put my birthday on the calendar to begin with. It's my fault that I sent a girl down into the teacher's room, and it's my fault that the girls thought it was ok to sing happy birthday to me. She claimed that I'm not a professional teacher; that I'm very buddy-buddy with my students, and that's why they felt like it was ok.
Anybody want to shoot her for me? Or maybe lend me a gun? I can do it myself too!
She told me that she had been warning me about getting too friendly with them...blah blah blah.
It's not the singing that bothered me. In any other school it would've been fine. But this school is always bragging about their reputation as a well behaved chassidishe school. That is the biggest lie I've ever heard.
The girls here are so smug, and so bold, and fresh, I can't even imagine where it comes from. Singing happy birthday isn't really fresh, but when students carry on even when they are asked to stop, that is unacceptable. That's what I keep finding here. The girls don't know where to stop.
I called my husband in the 3 minutes I still had left before class and tried not to cry to him on the phone. I told him what the principal had said, and he was upset too, but he reminded me that I was leaving to another school next year.
Truth is, I'm more than a little nervous. I hope that people are right when they tell me it'll all be better there. If I had to go through another year like this... Well I wouldn't. I'd totally quit right in the middle of all of it.
Anyway, even my students noticed my mood in class today, and they sat quietly and wrote pages of history notes.
I finished the novel I was doing with them and then they all did something which further illustrates my point. At least three quarters of the class took their books, threw them on the floor, and stepped on them.
Aside from the damage they were doing to school property, I was horrified at the action. What a crude thing to do.
I began a play in their literature books, and the girls acted it out loud until the bell rang.
Recess time I was again in the teacher's room, pretty quiet and upset. It ended all too soon, and I had to go into the second class.
I sat while teaching; I never do that. The girls all noticed, and like the other class, they were all quiet and well behaved.
I tried joking with them a little and it got my mood up slightly, but the day wouldn't end soon enough.
I got home, relieved that this was my last day of school until Monday. I went to shoprite to air out, and basically spent the rest of my birthday looking at the ceiling.
Sometimes I feel like I'm 100 years old, but today I feel like a 13 year old teenager. Totally confused, upset, and more than a little lost.
Sorry for kvetching so much today, I know you hate reading about these kinds of days, but I need to vent sometimes too!
P.S. There is one nice part to my birthday though. My blog hit 200 visitors today since May 2. That's a nice feeling. Thanks to my readers who made this happen!