One for the team

I was thinking, during my lunch break, about writing about something to do with teaching stuff-- earlier today, I think I had some ideas about that.

Then, all hell broke loose, the school went code red (yeah, we literally have codes, one of which is red, which means lockdown, no students move, nobody in the hallway). We had, I think, something like 30 police officers (also, 6 firemen, treating injuries) before things were made sufficiently safe to gradually dismiss students and clear the school out.

Towards the beginning of the extended series of mob actions, I encountered a student of mine, who was apparantly trespassing (he's suspended from school), behaving erratically. I tried to talk him down, as did a number of other adults who were around, but to no avail. Before it was over, he shoved me three times, and put his hand on my throat.

I wasn't too worried about my physical safety, throughout any of the day: the student with whom I had the physical confrontation is a big guy, but he was out of his head, and I was in control-- not a real threat, there. Shortly later, I confronted another group of students and corralled them back towards where the authorities were (they had their cell phones out, and were discussing which of their associates they should call-- this is apparantly a recurring theme: gang members call in their soldiers when it jumps), and my conversation with them got a bit tense-- I was aware that I was on my own, without any nearby backup, but a quick assessment made it clear there was really only one fighter in the group. Still, that was the closest I came to feeling that I was in danger.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this-- I think I'm just dumping data at the moment-- but I can't help but notice that my earlier plans to think about my teaching practice are now utterly washed away.