The shit kind of hit the fan and I'm not where to start, but Vizzini says to go back to the beginning, so here goes.. (it's going to be a long one)
I have this one student, let's call him Ralph, who has spent his whole freshman year on the verge. On the verge of anything.. going gangsta, heading towards college, becoming a pothead, becoming a real person.. and for some reason I gravitate towards him. I've been pulling for him all year. Getting him to run for student counsel, planting thoughts of joining AVID and going to college, getting him excited to be in my physics class in a few years.. I really thought I was getting through to him. Maybe I was naive, but I thought we had a connection. I really thought I could save this one.
But lately he'd been slipping. It was no secret that he'd been experimenting with smoking the ganja and getting to know some questionable characters inside and outside of school. He started cutting class pretty often. And I saw a completely different side of him during his contract meeting.. with his teachers and family around him to support him as we explore if he maybe has dysgraphia (a writing disorder), he completely closed up and closed off and wouldn't even talk to us by the time we left it.
Well last week began the wonderful week of STAR testing. (California's state standardized testing) Notice the sarcasm dripping off each word. This translates into.. 4 hours with my freshmen advisory class each morning, grueling over a multiple choice test that's almost designed for them to fail but doesn't hold them accountable for their performance. It throws off our class schedules and most of the kids are so fried after the testing that they don't even come to class for about a week.. it's a recipe for disaster and mischief.
Last Thursday the scene of the mischievery just happened to be my classroom. Right in front of my nose, Ralph brought vodka into school and shared it with two of his classmates in their orange juice. We'll call one of those kids Emo-kid. He comes back into the story a little later on, unfortunately. Screwdrivers and STAR testing, sounds about right, no? I'm still kicking myself for not catching on because I would have saved us all a world of drama if I had. At least for now.
I don't know who did finally catch on, but by the end of the day the students had been pulled out of their classes and fingers pointed back at Ralph. He was suspended for a few days. (And I'll say right here.. that something is seriously wrong when I didn't find out about any of this until a full day after the vodka sharing. It was in my classroom, for God's sake, shouldn't I be informed??)
But the kicker is that when he finally came back to school, I overheard a pretty disturbing conversation between him and a friend as we were leaving an all school assembly.. I only caught snippets, but what I did hear was plenty.
"He's right there.. what are you gonna do? You gotta do something."
"I don't know man, what should I do? He snitched on me before.. he's gonna snitch on me again."
It was one of those conversations that you kind of wish you could unhear, but once you've heard it, you absolutely can't ignore it. At least, I couldn't. So I walked with Ralph out of the assembly, making small talk and hoping to thwart any further plotting for the time being. Once I got back to my floor I told my coworker what I had heard, and she told me to go straight to the assistant principal with the info. So I called down, and after a little trouble, finally got in touch with the AP. She thanked me for the info and assured me that they'd handle it.
Neither Ralph nor Emo-kid showed up to class seventh period. I found out after school that the very next period, after the assembly, after my phone call to the AP, Ralph had jumped Emo-kid for snitching on him and then fled the campus. Not just got-into-a-fight, but full on attack-from-behind. The school sent the police to his house to pick him up. They handcuffed him, but didn't lock him up. My AP says they're going to push for expulsion. Emo-kid has filed for a restraining order on Ralph.
My coworker today asked me if I filed a report in regards to what I overheard at the assembly. It seems that the fact that it was a pre-meditated act of violence will really seal the deal as grounds for expulsion and pressing charges. And yet.. I'm still torn. I still see this kid in Ralph.. this kid that's on the verge. On the verge of anything.. and with this turn of events, he's found himself on the verge of becoming a true-blue juvenile delinquent. As much as I love and feel for Emo-kid.. I'm worried about Ralph. If he gets expelled from the school/district.. what's next for him? He can barely read/write.. he's not going to get a real education if no one sees his potential and pushes him back from this ledge. I fear that if I do file this report, I'm resigning him to a life of gang-banging and drug dealing.. precisely the future I hoped to help him avoid.
On the other hand, there's nothing forgiveable about what he did. Sure he was pressured into it by a kid possibly more evil than he, but he's still responsible for his actions and choices. And maybe the counseling staff could have handled the vodka situation differently so Ralph wouldn't know that Emo-kid had a hand in his getting in trouble. Maybe I should have noticed the orange juice wasn't right.. I don't know. But what Ralph did was wrong. He should face the consequences of his actions.. now. Rather than later, when the consequences are so much worse than getting kicked out of school.
And what happens to Emo-kid now? Will Ralph's posse avenge his fate by terrorizing him even more than he already has been? There's a reason why I call him Emo-kid, he's already emo without all this nonsense! I guess he's not entirely innocent either, he did share the vodka as opposed to being forced to drink.
I don't know how this story ends. I suspect it has something to do with what I decide to do (or not do) come Monday morning. And that's really, really heavy stuff to grapple with on a Friday night..
School of Rock:
