The past coupla weeks went by in a fog. I spent a whole lot of non-work time sleeping....fighting yet another sinus/ear infection...and the rest of it daydreaming about the new house. I was marking time til Friday, so I could not only find out the Inspection Verdict, but also see inside the house again. And make sure it was what I remembered.
Because it occurred to me that I made a decision to bid my "fortune" on an object that I had actually only stepped foot in twice.
Unfortunately, life kept rudely intruding on my daydreaming time.
A week ago I spent the last few minutes of my conference period doing the Attendance Tour. This is where I wander through my kiddos' attendance on the computer...to make sure their keisters have been where they're supposed to be. I knew BigBro was absent that day (he had a nasto-riffic cold)....so I started with Buggy.
That's as far as I got.
When I pulled up his attendance....and saw that he had been suspended for the afternoon....and would be in schooljail for the next few days.....wooooooooooweeeeeeeeeee was MamaH PISSED!!!! I just knew his hot little temper had gotten him into a fight. Maddeningly, I couldn't go talk to his AP because the next class was on their way in.
CoTeach got there, and we got the kiddos going on SSR. SkipperDude actually showed up for class....and then decided to lie to me about where he had been. He told me his AP had said he couldn't return until he showed proof of address. I called him on this, his most recent, lie. (Seeee, I had seen him in the hall several times over those days.) He apparently forgot how life rolls in Ms.H's Universe....because he decided he didn't have to do a bloody thing CoTeach and I wanted him to do. He got louder and louder....and I got madder and madder. Finally, I sent him to the hall. And followed him with a referrral. (CoTeach smiled. She was tired of him, too.)
Now, I realize -- and acknowledge -- that a lot of my willingness to fuss at him and actually write him up and send him to PissyAP (the one who yelled in my face last spring) was because I was transferring my anger and frustration from Buggy to SkipperDude. I'm not saying SkipperDude didn't deserve getting kicked out and written up and personally escorted to PissyAP's office. Nooooo, he's deserved that for a long damn time. But usually I had a surfeit of patience....that usually outweighed my desire to actually deal with PissyAP.
After walking SkipperDude to the otherdamnside of Uberschool, I took a small detour by SavvyAP's office. She didn't even have to ask why I was there...she just handed me the referral.
Thankfully, it wasn't for fighting.
But it was still stupid. Buggy got sideways with the sub in Hellion's class....and then...no more than 30 minutes later...got sideways with ImageAP. The bad news is that ImageAP doesn't like to "lose face" in front of students....of which there were a ton milling about during their lunchtime. The even worse news is that Buggy, although an intelligent kiddo, doesn't like to lose either. And his stubbornness quickly squashes any semi-rational thought that might have a prayer of getting him to Shut. Up.
Buggy got hauled into SavvyAPs office by BountyHunterSub (who had a long talk with him along the way -- THANK GOD for BountyHunterSub) When ImageAP got there, she promptly demanded Buggy's Puertorican head on a platter. She was irate. (I can totally sympathize with her...I've run up against the BuggTemper a time or two. It's not a happy time.) She listed her demands for Buggy's drawing&quartering and left the office in a snit.
Thankfully, SavvyAP could see that Buggy was having a SuperduperBad Day. She talked him off the ledge and suspended him for the last two periods of the day....with minimum-security schooljail for a couple days the next week.
That afternoon of insanity actually served as the catalyst for the Buggy Breakthrough. His talk with BountyHunterSub and SavvyAP apparently gave him lots of food for thought....which turned his nasty little attitude around. Thank goodness.
Fastforward one week.
I'm sitting in my speech class....watching them do vocabulary....when Buggy BoUnCeS in (a la' Tigger). BigBro is following him, with a superstormy face.
Buggy: Miss! Check his attendance...like you did mine...check his attendance!
Me: Biggy...what happened?
BigBro: Mannnnnnn, I hate that woman.
Buggy: Miss...check it. Check it!
Me: SuperSnitch...chill out. What are you, the paid informant? Biggy...spill.
Biggy proceeds to tell me that he was at lunch when an AP asked him to see his ID. (They're supposed to be visible ALL the time.) He pulled it from his jacketsleeve...and showed it to her.
He then put it back in his sleeve.
The AP told him it needed to be visible...he asked why, since she had just seen it. After repeating this a coupla times, the AP told him to come with her. He asked why. She started counting.
Counting.
Biggy thought this was ridiculous...so when she said "Four" he said "five, six, seven, eight. Damnnnn miss...what?!?!?"
At that...Biggy's AP was called to escort him to the office. (Reader's Note: He has the same AP Buggy had last year.)
All Biggy's AP knew was that Biggy used profanity toward the other AP....and suspended Biggy for the rest of that day and the next....and told him he'd be going to MaximumSecuritySchoolJail OR to the alternative school on Monday.
Any guesses as to which AP Biggy got sideways with?
Yep. ImageAP.
Unfortunately, Biggy's AP doesn't have the objectivity toward ImageAP that SavvyAP does. What he does have is a very vivid memory of Buggy's Antics over the previous two years....which results in a very low tolerance for any of the BuggBrothers.
I went to talk to Biggy's AP....to try to convince him that sending Biggy to alternative school would be counterproductive to all of the hardwork Biggy has done over the past 4 weeks. He was hearing none of it. He was convinced that ImageAP was right...and Biggy cussed her out...and I am incredibly naive about my boys and think they can do no wrong.
I'm not. I am quite aware of the fact that they have tempers...tempers which turn them into little shits when they're being confronted. I'm also aware that they know how to be respectful...and will be respectful when confronted in a respectful way. When they're confronted rudely, it's like dropping a match into a vat of gasoline.
I talked to Biggy Friday afternoon. He says it's stupid to send him to MaximumSecuritySchoolJail OR to the alternative school over his i.d. And he won't go.
I told him, "You know what's even stupid-er? You dropping out over an i.d. If you do, ImageAP wins. I don't want her to win. I want to watch you graduate and smile my smug little smile at her AND AppraiserAP (yep, he's my evaluator) and let them know they were wrong about you. That way, you and I both win."
Tomorrow's his sentencing. We'll see what the verdict is.
~hasta