an earlier introduction to daily life

(First posted on February 28)
vaguely daily blog about teaching in a big public system.
Last week I worked in a school where the sub was required to be IN the gym WITH students, but WITHOUT anything to do. Teacher couldn't be trusted to keep basketballs safe.
So a student, not in the class, came anyway. No way to tell when students would not STAY on number (the way gym teachers take attendance) until attendance was taken.
He lunged at students and at me with a shade-pole (the ones used to open an close windows or shades in a tall room), carried around the fire extinguisher and punded on the bleachers upstairs, precariously close to the ledge above others' heads) refused to tell me who he was. PROBABLY showed me a fake ID. My wallet was empty when I left the class.
Later someone (him? His friend?) sneaked into the boys locker room and stole a cell-phone.
I got into a talk with him about why did I have short hair like a man. My dress that day? Or a squaring of the jaw from stressors. Or what? A school where girls tend to be veiled, FEmale teachers dress more femininely? Who knows. Every new place, a new climate-- and it changes over time.
Strange recalling of days at my last regular ("failing" ) school, when kids dissatisfied with the way things were, would lash out at the weakest link. They're predators, says Judy Dench in 'Notes on a Scandal'. They sense weakness. And they hunt.
Scariest part?
The scariest part of this whole day was, I was disregarded and disrespected all day. I didn't THINK about telling anyone until this student's behavior became an issue for another student -- when a cell-phone was stolen from the locker-room. I didn't think it was big deal, or that I should take any measures, until it was a question of someone else's property. I was told I was responsible, of course, because no students NOT dressing for a class ( who are they? ) are allowed (by me?) in the locker room. Not my loss, my fault.
I want to use a log to keep track of what happens and my reactions. Pretty risky to do it in a public place. I can't help thinking there are hundreds, thousands who live a rather besieged life, bumped, bumped, bumped into less and less viable places, because they were taken out of the first place because it was not making AYP*.

*Adequate Yearly Progress, see No Child Left Behind provisions, and definitions at any state education office site.