I decided to write a series of blog posts about things I have seen over my teaching career. The names will be changed to protect my former students’ identities.
During my first job, teaching students in a pull-out program that required extra support for one reason or another, I had a kindergarten student I will call “Jimmy.” He was an adorable little boy who showed some developmental delays that we were in the process of trying to figure out. He was a precious child. One day, he asked to use the restroom, which was across the hall. I let him go, telling him to come right back. A bit later, the school psychologist came into the room. She asked if I knew where “Jimmy” was. I replied, “Yes. He’s using the restroom.” Smiling, she told me to go and check on him while she watched the classroom. I went into the restroom and there was “Jimmy.” He had his belt off, standing on the toilet seat, and stirring the water in the toilet with his belt, singing at the top of his lungs, having the time of his life! “Jimmy” is the reason I went back to school to work on my Special Education certification. I wanted to know what made kids like him tick and better understand how to help them.
Teaching in a now out of business, private preschool in California, I had a friend I’ll call “Blake” in my class. His parents were separated and took turns dropping him off and picking him up. One day, his mom showed up to pick him up. She was clearly under the influence of something. I refused to let her take him, getting into an argument with the preschool owners about releasing him. I told the owners that if anything would happen to “Blake” after we released him, we could be held liable for releasing him to a family member that was under the influence. Even though I had to stay beyond my shift until “Blake” was picked up, I stood firm in protecting my student.
In one district, we had preschool four days a week and Fridays were for Preschool meetings and home visits. We were required to meet with the families of our students once a month in order to show them things that they could do with their child to help them be successful in school. On one such visit, the mom of a little girl had her hair up in rollers and The Young and Restless blaring on the TV. She did not turn it off when I arrived. The three of us sat at the kitchen table and I started talking about a game I had brought and how it would benefit my student. Her phone rang. She told the caller I was there, but continued talking to the caller instead of telling them she would call back after I left. It was clear from the conversation that Mom was making a drug deal. After I left, I reported the mom to Child and Family Services.
Then was “Jay.” “Jay” told me that his mouth hurt. I sent him to get a drink of water. We had some kind of assembly that day. He didn’t even enjoy the assembly. His mouth hurt too bad. I left my para with the rest of the class and the other teachers and their classes and took him to the nurse. The nurse discovered that he had a broken tooth! While she was making phone calls to find someone to come and get him and take him to the dentist, I was questioning “Jay” about whether or not Daddy (Mom was not in the picture) gave him medicine for his sore tooth. He said that Daddy did. I asked him what it tasted like: Bubblegum? Oranges? Strawberry? Grape? He said “no” to all of them. He told me it was in a brown bottle. I was thinking about prescription medication. Nope. On a whim, I asked the school secretary to pull up a picture of Jack Daniels whiskey. “Jay” said, “Yeah! That’s it! My Daddy makes me drink it. I fall asleep and then my tooth don’t hurt no more!” You should have seen the look on our secretary’s face! In comes Daddy’s girlfriend. The nurse says, “You need to get him to the dentist.” The girlfriend replied, “How do I find one of those?” The secretary responded with, “How about the Yellow Pages?” Our secretary proceeded to look up and write down a couple of numbers for the girlfriend. Hello? Child and Family Services? Who gives their child whiskey for a toothache?
Stay tuned for more stories from my career!
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