Gangs

November isn’t starting out so good for this old substitute teacher. I may be losing my tolerance. But I’ve had to face way too many belligerent children. At one high school, a group of Spanish speaking boys just refused to do anything other than read the newspaper. And when they were finished reading, they wadded up the paper and began throwing it across the room.

I felt doomed when I realized I could not give them the books that were required for the assignment. The teacher had locked up the books and forgotten to leave me a key. The students began grumbling in Spanish. They shouted across their seats to one another and then laughed. It was frustrating for me because I did not know what they were saying.

The teacher had left some photocopies of the reading material, which had to be signed out. I tried to explain this to the students but they feigned ignorance of English. I had heard them speaking English so I knew this was a lie.

Finally I gave a referral to the ringleader who sat in the back with his arms folded, barking commands at the other boys. He signed the referral but refused to leave the classroom. Meanwhile, I called security about three times and kept getting a recording.

The whole situation was absolutely deranged. The students began throwing the wads of paper at me! One hit the wall behind me. I finally got through to the secretary and I shouted into the phone, “I am afraid for my physical safety.”

The security guard came down and lectured the students. There was, at this point, a half hour left of the two-hour class.