Fall, a time for apple cider and powdered donuts, fast approaches. I can smell it in the air. The public schools will soon open their doors to promising youths craving new beginnings. As for my students … let’s just say their learning environment is a bit restrictive if not downright stagnant. While one dog’s busy chasing his tail, others are observing, trying to figure a way out of prison school.
“Mr. T, I’m not feeling well, can I go back to my unit?” Prisoner Bernier asks—a common theme.
As much as I’d like to remove him from my area, it’s beyond my power. Two weeks ago he used my stapler to get attention. At first the class laughed, which was definitely what he had wanted, so he repeated his little trick over and over and over until I intervened. “I see no reason,” I said, “for you to continue stapling your arm.” I held out an open palm. “Fun’s over, give it up.”
Prisoner Bernier has been in state custody since the ripe old age of eleven. Mentally he hasn’t progressed much. “Can I at least go to the bathroom?” He asks.
“Yes,” I answer.
He returns (rather quickly) and sits where most of my students sit: in the back. Shortly thereafter, someone informs me that there’s vomit outside my classroom door. I call Prisoner Bernier up to my desk. “Did you just puke outside my door?” He smiles. “I take that as a yes.” I send him back to his unit, but before he leaves I thank him for not vomiting on the classroom carpet. “Make sure you tell the school porter on your way out,” I add.
Once he’s gone, the complaints start. “You know,” someone says, “he stuck his finger down his throat.” “Yeah, he’s doing that shit on purpose.”
Instead of acknowledging the complaints I make an observation. “You guys must’ve had applesauce for lunch.”
“No,” one of my better students says. “They gave us apples.”
9 comments:
JR-is that prisoner recieving any mental therapy? How very sick and sad. I'll say it again, 'BE CAREFUL'!
Hilarious! Having sat in your seat, it is my professional opinion that your student earned his way back to the unit for small yard rec. If the rest of 'em had the guts to stick their fingers down their throats they could enjoy the rec yard as well. It is all about being able to cover your ars. By puking in the hall, while on camera, you have the required evidence to make the call. He gets rec, you get one less a-hole in your room. I see it as a win win. I enjoyed the story.
One of the students in my class, in school did exactly the same thing!
They get apples in jail there? Unbelievable!
When you receive the book I sent you, read to them what the prisoners in India are getting in jails. And tell them what they are NOT missing being where they are!
It's good to be a free man in Paris. Or anywhere else, I'm guessing. The hard apple of truth.
Me thinks that his gag reflex is pretty much at his beckon call and that his fingers ain't the only thing he's had down his throat? Enjoyed the read and the fine photography?
Huck
Gads, what a pathetic cry for attention...
Well.
Nothing like having a captive audience.
But when they barf, well, that's really being critical. :)
Better the hall than on your desk which inevitably may have been better seeing as how no one would have gotten graded on that days papers and the miscreant would have gotten the same applesauce grade as everyone else.
Mona, there are some surprises that I like. I look forward to it.
Hey everyone, Puke Boy has progressed to something else. Perhaps I'll write about it in the near future.
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