May 13, 2014

I was sitting in the lab this morning before school started, checking MAP stuff, when I heard a loud scream. Not blood-curdling or anything but loud enough. It was immediately followed by the equally loud laughter of one of the resource teachers. A short while later one of the Boys & Girls Club staff girls came into the lab and said my cutout was at it again. She is the one that was scared by it on Monday I think. Across the hall there is an art closet and the fourth grade teacher had put the cut out just inside the door. And it scared the crap out of the art teacher when she opened the door. It has scared a lot of people at this point but that was probably the best one so far. Later in the morning it was moved to one of the second grade rooms while they were at field day, and then moved up to one of the fourth grade rooms while they were at field day. It gets around.

Other than the screaming, today was a pretty quiet day thanks to field day. The younger grades went to the park this morning and the older ones this afternoon. I still had classes in the lab but it made for a much quieter building. I had a make-up MAP test this morning but that took less than half an hour. Then I went around to all of the computers, updating Java and getting the latest version of Firefox. That took awhile because not only did I have to log into each computer as myself, I also had to authenticate to get around the firewall each time. But I had a lot of time on my hands.

Earlier in the morning I submitted a trouble ticket for one of the computer that had a trust relationship issue, and late in the morning an old smokey dude showed up. He had an ethernet cable in one hand and asked where the laptop was. I said I didn't have a laptop but I pointed out the computer needing fixed. So he was confused right off the bat because he was positive the trouble ticket had said a laptop, even though it was for a computer lab and there was no mention of a laptop. Then I threw him another curve ball because the computer I pointed out had a kid on it. With a trust relationship issue, no students or kids can log into the computer but I discovered that you can log in using the proctor log in. Because of this, I don't really know when the issue started because I've been logging all the computers in using the proctor login for weeks now. But this guy was convinced that you couldn't log into a computer when it had a trust relationship issue. I explained the proctor thing and then just shrugged my shoulders when he looked at me. When he finally started working on it, he was done three minutes later. Whatever they do to resolve the issue obviously isn't too involved but it isn't something they will allow us to fix. Today was the fastest turn-around ever in terms of submitting a trouble ticket and having someone show up, but it can take weeks or even a month or more for someone to show up for a three-minute fix. It's annoying.

With the rest of my morning and some of my afternoon, I designed a participation certificate for the science fair. It looks like a certificate and I put a microscope in the background, because that is sciency. I think it looks adequate. I emailed the teachers today to see how they want their certificates. Whether they want one for each kid (or one for a whole group for the ones with group projects) and whether they want me to leave them blank so they can write the kids' names and sign them or if they want me to type that stuff in. I've heard back from a few so hopefully I hear from the rest sometime tomorrow, because the science fair is Thursday, I think.

It seemed like all day there was a lot of banging around upstairs but at one point it was a bit more exaggerated. I found out later that the increased activity was one of the sixth graders going nuts. When he was coming in from outside one of the paras asked him to give her the basketball and he didn't want to. That eventually turned into him coming in and swinging his jacket around the SPED room, which turned into him throwing a chair around in the small room inside the SPED room, and I think breaking the laptop in there. This is the same kid that ran off a week or two ago and ended up in a tree and talking to a couple cops last week. All the paras that work with him and the SPED teachers are over it and today he left the building in handcuffs. Something that probably should have happened a lot sooner.

He has been violent before and made numerous threats of violence in the past. A lot of the adults who work with him are convinced that these are threats realistic and could be acted upon. More a question of when, not if. But not a lot has been done. Rather than kick him out of school, he gets to shadow the principal for a day or one of the SPED teachers has to follow him around. Last week a kid got a day of out of school suspension for hitting is younger brother. The sixth grader goes nuts and gets a break from school, shadowing the principal.

It is a very convoluted situation. His adoptive father is a teacher at the school and that probably plays a major role in the whole situation. And even though the paras and SPED teachers are over it and convinced the whole thing is a ticking timebomb, the principal appears to be overly lax about the situation. Whether she is just trying to get through the last several days of school or what, no one knows. Apparently one of the paras had previously wanted to file a police report based on the threats but the adoptive father told her he didn't want her to because he didn't want her to put a target on her back. And that seems to be a very real fear. This kid needs serious help and he isn't going to get that in a normal school setting. Just trying to survive the year and then be glad when he's at another school next year, isn't a great plan.

There is a great potential for dangerous activity and that isn't going to go away when he becomes someone else's problem. I keep thinking of Sandy Hook, where the shooter was a former student of the elementary school. That was a different situation, with the shooter apparently flying under the radar for most of his life, at least to those outside his family, coming across as a quiet kid. In our case, the kid is outwardly aggressive and very clear in his threats of violence. And it has taken to until the end of his sixth grade year for cops to get involved. I have never witnessed any of the violence, only seeing little fits here and there, and maybe there is a greater plan going on that I, and all the paras and SPED teachers are in the dark about, but it doesn't seem like it. Just hearing all of the stories makes obvious that the situation could easily take a turn for the worse and that is scary. Genuinely scary. All these adults are trying to help him but all of that goes over his head. Or he just doesn't care. Probably the latter. It all sounds like it will be a perfect case of looking back on things after an event and all the signs being blatantly obvious. And more than one person is convinced it is just a matter of time. We need a more accessible mental health care system and more support for people working with kids that are beyond their capability to actually help. It shouldn't just be a situation of managing until you hand them off to the next person. Some kids can be helped with accommodations in a normal school setting. And some can't. Rant over.

After school I took the two prints I got my brother to the frame shop. A lady came in ahead of me (actually a mom of someone I went to school with but she doesn't know me) and while she was picking out her frames and mats she told me not to worry because she would be quick. I told her not to worry but I was timing her and she had two minutes, so no pressure. As she was leaving she asked how she did on the two minutes and I looked at my imaginary wrist watch and informed her that she was just over the two minutes. It was kind of funny. As for my frames and mats, I think good choices were made. I'm really happy with the eagle print and I think I'm happy with the Halo print. I went with already made frames to save time and money, and if they get the one mat in that I picked, they could have everything done by Friday, which would be awesome because my brother graduates on Sunday.

While we were picking everything out I found out the lady was a huge nerd. She thought that Halo print looked familiar and when I told her what it was it jogged her memory and she said she had seen commercials for it and thought it looked pretty cool but she didn't really play video games. I told her that there were actually books based on the game and she said she was going to have to look at the library. She also mentioned that her sister was almost done writing her first Sci-Fi book and from the description it sounded pretty cool. Also, the first video game she ever played was Zork, a text adventure game, which I have actually played and sucked at. I never made it very far before getting frustrated at not knowing what to type. She said she actually made it pretty far but was then turned into a ghost, which effectively ended the game because you can't do anything as a ghost. We also talked briefly about Star Trek. It was a very interesting conversation.

Tonight I added several rows to my purple scarf and played a bit of Tera. Right at the start I joined the queue to get into a party to go into the mansion that I have been trying to get into for awhile now. Then I ran off to town to sell stuff. I hadn't gotten very far into the selling when I got a notice that I could teleport to the mansion, so even though I still had a pretty full inventory, I teleported. The inventory became a bit of an issue but it wasn't too bad. The mansion was a lot of fun with other people. I didn't actually chat with any one in my party but I did run around a kill mobs with them. It was much better with other people than it was solo. When you go solo, all the attention is on you, but in a group I can actually play the ranged archer that my character is supposed to be. Along with completing several quests while in the mansion, I also leveled up once and added more than half a level on top of it. It makes me want to do it again, and maybe trying to join a guild and make friends so I have people to quest with. I am a strange person. Usually people who have trouble making friends in the real world can make friends online. I struggle with making friends in the real world and I make no effort to do so in the virtual world either. I need to pick one and go with it.

And now, with all the ranting and rambling of this entry, it is way past my bedtime. I would say I need to get better at that but it is almost summer and I will be back on a theater schedule. Which is to say, an awful schedule. But one that generally doesn't require me getting up at six o'clock in the morning but often requires me to be up way past my bedtime. I like one of those but not the other. Take a guess.