School Fires

This is my unbelievable adventure as a substitute teacher. I began this work in October 2002 in California. I will not tell you the names of the schools or the students but the stories are true. It is a journey of confusion in which I find myself searching for the meaning of what is happening to me. Maybe I will know by the end of my compilation.

I never know where I will be going until the last minute. I get a call from a computer, which randomly selects people.

My first class was a special class of fourth, fifth and sixth graders. They had learning disabilities. Students with learning disabilities get extra attention and teaching aides in the class. I am glad another teacher was there to help keep the atmosphere calm. At one point, while I was talking the teacher’s aide said, “You don’t have their attention.” Then I waited for her to get them under control.

I have had to learn the hard way. Qualifications for a substitute include a four-year degree and ability to pass an exam. You are not taught how to get students’ attention. That’s just something you have to figure out on your own.

In my second class a student didn’t want to do the assignment, which was to write a “How To” article. He asked if he could write “How to Destroy the School.” I almost agreed just to invoke his creativity but there was another teacher in the room who would probably have been horrified.

Good thing I held back. “Safety First” is the rule these days, according to the school website. The students would tell and I would be in trouble for encouraging inappropriate behavior. Also, there has been a string of school fires in California this year. In Walnut Creek there were four at the same school. The number of school fires in California is surprisingly large. Each year there are about 2000 such incidents.

Many of these fires are caused by arson. Because of the lack of automatic alarms and sprinkler systems, fires that start after school hours frequently cause major damage before they are discovered.

There were nine fires in San Francisco Bay Area schools between October 5, 2003 and February 23, 2004. The current California building codes do not require either smoke alarms or sprinkler systems in new school construction or in major school modernization projects. Only pull-box fire alarms are mandated by California building codes for new school buildings.

Maybe I should have said to that student who wanted to write about destroying the school, “You seem angry about this assignment. Learning to write ‘how to’ articles might help you when you grow up and join the military. You can advance in your career by writing an article about how to put a rifle together.”