Dad on Duty #108 – We Have a Code Brown

So as I walk in this morning, Valerie greets me with “oh man good thing you’re here today”.

That’s never good.

The other secretary is out today and we have the usual chaos for a Friday, so Valerie’s gonna be busy. I help her up front as much as I can, although I don’t know the routines or teachers well enough to be on auto-pilot. I need a lot of help from Valerie. It’s a bit bumpy, at least at first.

But today, I sensed real progress in our relationship, me and this school. I felt the most connected to the people today, both kids and staff. I knew where to go, what to do. I’m learning their names, and they mine.

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I’m helping walk a kindergarten class down the hall to lunch. One little girl asks me “Will you hold my hand?” Sure, of course. Another little girl right behind her says “Me too!”. OK, I tell them, but we have to stay in line. So we walk, in an awkward, twisted trio, holding hands but doing our best to stay in proper hallway walking etiquette lest the teacher give us the look.

The teacher turns, sees our odd arrangement, and……touches her heart and nods at me.

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First thing this morning when I was dropping the big girls off at middle school across the street, we noticed the PE Coaches dressed in fat suits as we pull up. Now, as I am helping 1st grade go to PE, I see why. The coaches are promoting the Fun Run, a school fundraiser where kids run laps for dollars.

The coaches burst into the gym to the shrieks and laughter of the kids. They run a couple of laps in these ridiculous outfits. The kids *love* it. These guys are energetic, positive and just plain amazing. How can you NOT be pumped up and excited about fun run when you have this?!?

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All of us happened to be in the office for a few minutes. The counselor comments “it’s been a pretty quiet day”. Valerie and the A/P shoot her a death ray look; “shut your mouth. Never say that” they remind her. The counselor replies “it’s already 1:30, what can possibly happen now?”

15 minutes later, everyone is scattered across the school with three different kid issues. Serious stuff. DEFCON 1.

And the A/P gets punched squarely in the jaw. Limping back up to the office, she glares at the counselor and asks “you were saying…..?”

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Art. It is the genuine nature of art that it confronts you, challenges you, catches you off guard and unprepared. That’s kinda the point. And it did just that.

 

So I stare at these pieces of art, and it makes me pause and reflect. Who are these kids? What are their lives like? And most important….what can we do to serve them?

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While standing here outside of the Art room helping herd kids, a kid asks me my name. I say “Mr. Phillips; what’s yours?” He tells me and then says “hey, her name (the Art teacher) is Mrs. Phillips. Are you married to her?” No, no I’m not. “Then who are you married to?” he asks.   Well, to a ….Mrs. Phillips…..yeah, you’re right about that……just not that particular one….look, it’s complicated kid.  He shrugs.

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Oh my lord, the bathrooms.  I am spending SO MUCH time in the bathrooms.  It’s more of an issue here, because we have Pre-K.  Just that one year…..just one year….at this early point in their development makes *so* much difference.

I dealt a fair amount with KG-ers in the bathroom at McCoy, but it is at least 10 times that much here, with the Pre-K-ers.

At one point, a little boy who is having trouble managing his trousers ambles out into the hallway, pants around his knees, and declares to no one and everyone at once “I can’t get my pants up”.  Yeah, we can see that.  I swoop in and spin him back around toward the sinks, and get him tidied up.  One of the Pre-K teachers, echoing Valerie from this morning, remarks “oh thank God you’re here”.  Yeah, I’m the pee-pee SWAT team.

About two hours later, girls coming spilling out of their bathroom screaming and pointing toward the toilets.  “There’s poo-poo!” they exclaim.

Excellent.  Because that’s definitely what we need now.

One of the toilets is clogged (too much TP…..maybe mischief, most likely just lack of operator experience), and is overflowing.

A bunch of kids start to go back in there to see, to which I put an abrupt and clear stop.  “Everyone out now!” I bark, and they do.

I call the custodian, Juan, on the radio.  “We have a code…..um…..brown…..in the 1st grade bathroom”.

It takes him a long time to acknowledge that radio transmission.  A.  Long.  Time.

Finally he says “ok…..on my way…..”, but I’m pretty sure he was halfway to his car to go home…..to hell with this….. and at the last minute changed his mind.

When I get back to the office, Valerie asks “code brown?”  Yeah, I didn’t know what to call that.  She tells me she prefers “number 2 problem”.  OK, noted.  Good meeting.

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We live in a relatively affluent community. Demographically, our town is better off than most. But the thing that you may not realize is that the fact that “only” 30% of the population is disadvantaged does not give you a real sense of what that means in real life. These bags…..carefully positioned outside of every classroom on Fridays…..tell an important story. This is free food, for folks that otherwise might not make it through the weekend without being hungry. And there are dozens, and dozens, and dozens of these bags as you look up and down the hallways.

Picture that for a moment, my friend and reader. Please. Picture that. As you walk by a room, you see these bags of food. Then, as the reality dawns on you, you look up…and left….and right. And there are a fifty of them. In just this hallway.

Let that sink in for a moment. Now. Please.

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Rain complicates things. It means the kids are trapped and restless. It means that the way home often changes (instead of walking, I want my kid to ride the bus or I will pick them up). Now that last issue….change in transport mode…..might seem modest, but when it’s extrapolated across 100 plus kids…..it’s gets pretty darn complex. Especially because those calls are not evenly distributed across the day; they pretty much ALL come in within 1 1/2 hours of dismissal. That’s a lot of calls to handle successfully by one person. Valerie is a superhero. Wonder Woman.

Several times, Valerie would still be on the phone with yet another change-in-transportation-call and just hand me a piece of paper saying “X kid is now a car rider”, and I…to my surprise and pride…..was mostly able to run with that on my own without her help. Very different from this morning.

Quickly, as those calls stacked up, she relied on that capacity more and more. Fine with me; that is why I am here.

We did it pretty darn well, actually. I’m proud of us.

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I’m getting the hang of this, in this new world for me. These are amazing people, and beautiful, wonderful children. It is a special place, that is connecting more and more to my heart.

Thank you for welcoming me, Cooper. Thank you.