Their, they're, there.

I brought a young boy to lunch the other day in the cafeteria. He is about 10, got in some hot water for this, that or the other thing. Now he is stuck with me for the day, or I should say we are stuck with each other.
I am waiting at the end of the line for him and a teacher walks up and says:
He is wearing the right colors today.
What? I say, looking at his orange t-shirt.
The right colors. she says
It takes me a few seconds but I get it, the right colors, for prison.
Maybe I haven't worked here long enough, but I am optimistic that everything will turn out right. I say
and she walks away, she leaves without further comment.
I cannot tell you how true it is that once the reputation is earned it sticks, not just with students but with teachers. The slightest infraction, backtalk, is treated with the same form of punishment as actually hitting someone.
A 10 year old on the fast track for the prison block?
No. I don't think so. But maybe that is why I am here in the first place. I have an us and a them mentality. Us being the kids I work with and them being everyone else in the school. I guess in the long run I will miss the job in ways. I just found out I am being replaced by a teacher next year. Good Luck kids.

shut your mouth

Walking up the outside steps with my work badge swinging in the breeze, thinking about the end of the day, my upcoming birthday.
I am greeted with a "happy birthday" from a student I work with everyday, let's call him Turtle.
Then at the top of the stairs I hear "your hair looks awful. Maybe you should comb it" from, let's call her Dirtring.
Now how can I explain Dirtring.She a roly apple, with brown, tangled ringlets and a dirtring on her neck 2 inches deep. Her hair is usually down so that you cannot see them, but somehow I was privy to the dirtrings 6 inches in length living in the folds of her neck. Usually she is in stretch pants, ked sneakers and wire framed glasses. Now I am holding a grudge against dirtring. I feel it unfair for her to tell me my hair looks a trifle messy. Does she not realize the torent of horrible things I could say back. The connections to all the other rejects I have in this school, they could torment her. The fact that I grade her everyday and it would not be beyond my grasp to make her existence more difficult if not utterly impossible. Not only that Dirtring has hurt my feelings, we have worked together everyday for 3 months and I have tolerated her well.
But I relent. I say "Thank You" (Dirtring) and choke on all the nasty comments.

The Abbates

I now realize that there were kids in my class whom no teacher liked.
Those kids still exist. There are the mouthbreathers, the slugs, emotional handicaps, batshit crazies, the pervs and those who just make you really uncomfortable to be around. They are not the fun, general misfits who I hold so dear to my own heart. They are the braindead, whiny, no personalities that I see everyday. Should I be working at a school? Maybe not but I still manage an opinion.

what is so funny.

I have lost my sense of humor
and my balls dropped off.
In the span of 8 hours
and the rain won't cease.
I wonder what will happen
when I make it home.
Someone was stabbed with
a pencil,
another managed an assault,
a handjob in the hallway,
a plot to push someone down the stairs.
I don't have the energy,
the grace,
or the ability.