I have never been a superstitious person, but after the last few days I might become one. There was a Friday the 13th in February, and just about everything that could go wrong did. Yesterday was even worse! Not even a minute after school started I was called down to the boys PE locker room because one of my Downs Syndrome students was standing on the bench, chain around his hand, shirt off, trying to find one of the football players to fight him. Apparently he had a dream in which this football player had hit him, but it was just a dream. He wouldn't calm down until the campus security monitor told him he could go talk to the police officers. So we walk him over to the campus police office and he tells the officer about his dream. He calms down a little bit, but you could tell he would still go off in a split second. We took him up to the Deans office and had to explain how he was going to be suspended for a few days. While we were waiting for his brother to come get him, we had to put him in one of the other self-contained units, but he wouldn't go. The AP walked in the room and he started hugging me and wouldn't let go. The SPTA for that room came out and walked around campus with him for a while. When the brother finally came, the student wouldn't leave the classroom! He didn't want to go home because he likes school. The brother, although not mentally challenged, was just as hot-headed as the student. The Dean was still trying to explain things when he took the chain from her desk and walked out! I can't wait until my meeting with them next week.
Of course, I also had to deal with arguing teachers, a toothache, an Assistant Principal that was mad at me and my Instructional Assistants for not doing a job she never told us to do in the first place, pushing around a dead electric wheelchair, dealing with an instructional assistant that was 2 hours late and left early, and all the normal paperwork that I deal with on a daily basis. The only good part was that the cooking teacher was having a special lunch and she let me come in and eat for free. I can only hope that next time Friday the 13th rolls around, it's better, or at least a weekend!
