It’s like the parting of the Red Sea, except it’s Navy Blue with Orange Stripes, the med-lines, the inmates in their uniforms, waiting for their pills, cordially unblocking the path as I pass by, my co-worker recalling a story about a seagull ingesting someone’s spat-out medicine.
“From what I’d heard,” he said, “the seagull perched himself atop that Marlin house.” And why shouldn’t he? It’s located not too far from where the prisoners exit the chow hall, where they toss pieces of stale bread onto the grass. “The medicine must’ve been strong,” he added, “because the seagull had difficulty flying and ended-up flopping onto the ground.”
With approximately $34,000 a month earmarked for prescription drugs there’s bound to be a few catatonic birds.
Earlier in the day I spoke to my boss about an extremely volatile student. While stealing paper from my other students’ folders a classroom tutor suggested that he approach me for supplies. “What are you, a snitch bitch?” Soon, feathers were ruffled. I tried to de-escalate the situation by calling the disturbed student to my desk. He wouldn't listen. I stood up and started walking towards them. Then I thought about all the dental work on my teeth and decided against intervening. Luckily, nothing happened.
Later that day my boss and someone from mental health met with me to discuss this particular inmate. “I agree with you,” the mental health professional said. “This individual is a time-bomb in the making. I know it, you know it, and he knows it. Unfortunately, he refuses to take his medication.” Then he got to the core of the problem. “Look, I don’t have any problem telling you this because he’s been in my office screaming at the top of his longs: He claims his wife is cheating on him with his best friend.”
Wonderful, just wonderful. I’m advised to monitor the situation. If it gets any worse, then he’ll be removed from my classroom and he will not be allowed to return until he agrees to take his medication. Hmmm… what’s going to prevent him from spitting it out?
7 comments:
If it gets worse you'll be repaying for your dental work. Sounds like a good worker's comp claim. Lets shut the barn door after the horse has run away and knocked someone out (or worse). Reactive vs Proactive, I guess it depends on which side of the locked door your on. Good Luck!
Sometimes things like this happen outside in the world. Our writing group has attracted a strange individual who shows up periodically to insult everyone and then leaves in a huff.
JR,
I am impressed you are familiar with the original title of a masterpiece by the late Jerzy Kosinski, The Painted Bird.
But you talk of anothr tainted bird, to wit, a seagull who had OD-ed on Lergactyl or some other anti-pshychotic medication.
I don't know what Kosinski, (author and CIA pig) had been on, but one day he took all the sedatives he could find, put a plastic bag over his head--and offed himself.
Well, I once wrote The Black Icon, still an underground bestseller. It had been compared to The Painted Bird--no, not your seagull.
...It's a good thing they're cutting back on plastic bag production. I'd hate to ape a really successful author. :)
Well, that's a memorable image, certainly -- the tainted bird bugged out on meds~~ as for the disturbed man, well . . . knuckle up and guard your grill with snafu panache.
Its amazing to me that situations like this aren't more proactively resolved. Sure I understand the lack of resources, manpower, etc., but it would seem to me that a proactive approach would be cheaper in so many different ways in the long run. Of course all the meds in the world won't help change a lifetime of inappropriate values and unacceptable (to society) moral code.
I give you kudos for dealing with and working in this situation on a daily basis.
Hey you all have a take down extraction crew...he can always be given a shot in the ass while restrained. Or do his civil rights mean more than your dental work? Or give hims his meds which have impotence as a side effect and let him have a conjugal visit with his wife.
Monitor the situation? *snort* Ridiculous. BTW, have you ever read "Don't Pee on My Leg and Tell Me it's Raining" by Judith Scheindlin (Judge Judy)? She talks about problems with the current justice system & possible solutions to them.
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