Dad on Duty 127 – School is a Core Sample

School is a broad, reflective and surprisingly accurate core sample of the local community in general. 

We interact not only with the kids, but their families and guardians as well.  And, therefore, we interact with all the issues those other people have too. 

It all comes to school. 

And we gotta deal with it.  Or more correctly….and maybe this is more important than I realize…….we are faced with the choice to deal with it, or not.

That choice is complicated and fraught with peril. 

Today is just such a day. 

At the end of the day today, I recognize a parent has a serious issue.  I make the decision, the choice, to hold my hand up.

It resulted in the cop assigned to the middle school across the street…..where my child actually is….in committing to a time-intensive assignment at our school. 

It is a situation and a problem that has *nothing* to do with school or the kids.  Except…it does, because school is society and everything out there is reflected here. 

As middle school dismissal time approaches, I realize the cop who directs the car pickup line is stuck over here, because of me.  So I carefully interrupt her, mid-incident, and say “I’m gonna go over there {to the middle school} and see if I can do some of your job. I will likely screw this up pretty profoundly.  And I don’t know how to do y’all’s pickup line at all”. 

I have no idea how they do car line over there. I have, literally, never even picked my kid up in car line.

Shannon (the cop) tells me: “super easy; don’t get run over, and don’t let any kids get run over.  That’s. It.”  She goes back to the adult problem I foisted on her.

Huh.  I think maybe I can do that. 

I walk into the front door of the middle school and am immediately met by the receptionist who tells me they have a serious kid issue in progress right now.  I didn’t know that, and am a bit stunned.  “How bad?” I ask.  Really bad, she tells me.  DEFCON 2.  They’ve evacuated the space and the Boss is in there with the kid.  I ask where, and she tells me.  I go straight to the scene and find the middle school Boss squared off with a kid who had been completely out of control for the past 20 minutes. 

Now we have a situation where one kid….ONE kid….is disrupting the operations of an entire middle school of over 600 kids. 

But, his behavior is genuinely not under his control.  It’s not.  He wants to be a good kid, and would be if he could be. 

Again, we are now orbiting around societal factors that are not directly part of school….except they are.  Because, look…..here we are. 

I walk into the now evacuated space where the middle school Boss and the kid are alone, in a standoff. 

“Hey man….how’s it going?” I ask the Boss.  “Great.  Really great.  As you can see” he replies. 

Furniture is overturned and there is a general appearance of chaos in the room.  Yeah, looks like it’s going super. 

I tell the Boss “ok dude, here’s the deal.  We are totally out of people.  I’m all you got left.  Tell me where to go and what to do”. 

Remember, it’s dismissal time.  There are 25 things that are all about to happen, and they are all pretty high risk. 

He thinks for a second and says “I’m ok in here with him” (and I would agree…..they seemed to be doing just fine now).  “I think you need to go out front and do traffic”.

I issue a disclaimer:  I will do whatever you tell me to do, but I have NO idea how to do your car line.  Never even SEEN it. 

He parrots the cop: just don’t get run over, and don’t let any kids get run over. 

I acknowledge and walk out front.  And I did a moderately bad job.  But nobody got run over, so there’s that. 

All of these machinations…..all this angst and effort and emotional strain…..were from factors and issues that have little to do with student learning. 

But they are real life in school. 

Because our school is a reflection and a core sample of our community. 

So whatever stuff is out there…..ends up in here. 

And we gotta choose…...to deal with it, or not.