The Swinging of the Scales

I'm so disappointed I don't even really know what to say. One of my students had been out for a few days last week. I figured he was suspended, because he's suspended a lot, but when he didn't come back after the fourth day I got worried. I asked his classmates if they had heard from him. That's when one of them told me he was in jail for committing a hate crime. I'm baffled. He wasn't the best of my kids, he'd said some rude a lewd things to me while my back was turned (which he couldn't be punished for since I didn't see him say them), but this is of a totally different caliber. I honestly didn't think any of my kids were capable of something like this.

Word around school is that he'll be in jail for at least 10 months. I'm just baffled. My view of my kids has been changed. No, I don't think they're all a bunch of awful hooligans and thugs, but I guess I should understand that they're not all angels. I guess I was a little naive. I get frustrated because I couldn't get through to him. He seemed to be making a honest effort to do better in my class. I thought I had inspired him to achieve, apparently not.

I still have my student T though. He is such a wonderful kid. The other teachers might have agreed to send him to alternative school, but I cried when they told me they were sending him away. I'm the one teacher who has always said positive things to him. Even when I caught him cheating on a test, I just told him I was disappointed and knew he was better than that, instead of telling him he was a bad person. Now every morning before he gets on the bus to go to alternative school he comes by my room to say good morning and tell me how much he misses me and my class. We are both counting down the days until he can come back. I honestly think I'm making a huge impact on his life. And I guess that makes up for the bad news.