School Me: Lessons I Didn't Want to Learn

Another one bites the dust

Well, two actually. Lost two students this week. One for possession of weed and paraphernalia. A seventh grade girl, kind of stayed below the radar. Not what I would have expected. She had a B+ in my class. She was suspended; not sure if she was taken into custody. (Sometimes I don't want to know the details.) She was also put on the ARP list. ARP stands for Administrative Review Panel. This is a group of district big-wigs (superintendent, assistant superintendent, and assorted other not-too-pleased-to-be-there administrators). We call this "being ARPed." I love how we take a phrase, reduce it to an acronym and then make it into a verb.

There is a long waiting list to be ARPed. Lots of kids in big trouble. While they await their turn, they sit in the front office of their school site and don't do the work that we teachers are required to provide to them. I mean really, can you blame them? Why even bother at this point?

This can go on for weeks. The results of the ARP are most often mandatory transfer to another middle school in the district. I used to use the phrase "dance of the lemons" to refer to the policy of transferring awful principals rather than firing them. But I guess it applies in this situation too. So these troubled kids pack up their myriad of issues in their Jansport backpacks and cart them off to another campus, which is grudgingly awaiting their arrival. We are always informed if the new student in our class was ARPed, and what their "crime" was. And so we watch - a bit more diligently than usual - and wait. How long until their true colors surface? Ocassionally, the change of venue really does do them some good, and they take a turn for the better. But with most it is only a matter of time - perhaps just a day or two - before they are back to doing the same sorts of things that got them ARPed in the first place.

The other student got into an argument with her mom and ended up hitting her. Mom hit her back, then the girl pulled out a BIG chunk of the mom's braids. She's in juvie now. (Since it happened at home, this is a court issue, not an ARP one.) This girl had some on-the-edge moments, and didn't always hang with the best group of friends. But she was well-behaved in my class and had an A. I've met her mom and from what I could tell she wasn't the type that deserved to be beat up on. (Some of them, I'd be willing to hold their arms behind their back while their kids wailed on them.) She had just taken in her sister's 13 year-old son, who is seriously developmentally delayed due to FAS (fetal alcohol syndrome). This on top of caring for her own three children.

Who knows what snapped that particular morning? Truth be told, I've had fantasies of smacking some of these smart-mouthed little brats. And lord knows there were many times I really wanted to hit my own mother (she would have deserved it). So I don't know where I would place the blame. But clearly this is a family that is going to need some help to get it back together again. No worries - I'm sure our over-worked, under-funded County Social Services department will be up to the task.