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| The Administrative Team at NVHS (I'm the one second to the right. Carrington's standing behind me.) |
Somewhere between the new school year beginning at NV High School, the start of my doctoral program at UNC, and the 14-hour days, 7-day weeks I've been working, I've found it difficult to do anything with my spare time besides collapse on the couch and sit on the toilet. To give you an idea of what my life is like right now, here is a detailed play-by-play of my day Friday, appropriately falling on the 13th of the month:
- 4:45 - Wake up.
- 4:54 - Wake up again.
- 5:00 - Two bowls of cereal (Crispix) and Bible Study (Gen. 38-39). I am reminded that the Old Testament is weird. For every faith-inspiring story, there is a scripture about a man spilling his seed on the ground.
- 5:10 - Shower and dress. Ditch the trademark suit and tie for a pair of khakis and a NVHS t-shirt to show school pride for the varsity football game.
- 5:20 - Indulge Merlin in a quick wrestling match. Win. Reinforce alpha male dominance over my dog. Kiss on snout.
- 5:25 - Leave for school.
- 5:30 - Arrive at school. Unlock the building. Walk the hallways, unlocking all entrances on my way. This is the most peaceful moment of my day. I am completely alone for at least an hour. The halls are quiet and the only noise I hear is the sound of my shoes clicking through the corridors. Mentally I prepare for the imminent onslaught of raucous students, like a runner preparing for the bulls of Pamplona.
- 6:00 - Sit at computer and weed through e-mails while listening to podcasts (Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and Stuff You Should Know are favorites). My inbox is overpopulated with disciplinary referrals sent from teachers identifying students who have violated school rules (cursing, dress code violations, skipping class, disrespect, fighting, sexual misconduct, etc.) From these e-mails I create a "Hit List". Before the day is over, these students will be introduced to my justice.
- 7:15 - On post. I stand in the lobby where students pour into the school from their buses and cars (far more bus riders than car drivers). I strategically position myself to scan the hoards for hats, du-rags, headphones, cell phones, spaghetti straps, and bare midriffs. I keep an eye on the bathroom for smokers. The smokers are resourceful and have lookouts of their own. We do this dance every day.
- 8:00 - Tardy bell rings. I move from the lobby to the Media Center where I dish out tardy passes to grudging students.
- 8:30 - Deal with stragglers and hall-wanderers. T.O. refuses to go to class and tells me I better suspend him now because he's ready to get into a fight. J.H. refuses to go to in-school-suspension. He is 18 years old and still in the 9th grade. This is his fourth time as a freshman and has accumulated 2 credits. His story is common, not unique.
- 8:45 - Hit List.
- 9:10 - Visit classrooms of new teachers. There are 14 first-year teachers at our school (accounting for 25% of our teaching staff). I observe each new teacher at least once a month. During their planning periods later in the day, I will catch up with them and watch several of them cry.
- 9:35 - Tardy bell for second period. Media Center. Tardy passes.
- 10:00 - Parent-teacher conference. S.G.'s mother has come to talk with me and a teacher who wrote him up for calling this particular teacher a "f---ing jerk." Student denies infraction. Teacher reiterates offense. Mom defends child. I grind my teeth to a pulp.
- 10:30 - Hit List.
- 11:15 - Tardy bell for third period. More Media Center. More tardy passes.
- 11:25 - Stand in the school courtyard for lunches, monitoring.
- 11:45 - Five students approach me. Tell me that a student in their last class had his penis out and was flashing it to them. I have them write statements and add student's name to the Hit List.
- 12:30 - Hit List. Save big infractions for the end of the day.
- 1:35 - Tardy bell for fourth period. More tardies. More grudging students.
- 2:00 - Big hitter on the Hit List. Team up with my oversized, colorful colleague, Mr. Carrington. He's a big man with an even bigger personality. We work very well together. In addition to being a full-time assistant principal, Carrington is also a pastor of a large Pentecostal church. He calls me his White Mormon Brother. We call this hour of the day "Shake and Bake". It is filled with parent phone calls and suspensions. A smoker gets three days. A student who we bust for skipping class tips us off that a student tried to sell her pills during lunch. We begin investigation.
- 2:35 - The flasher gets 10 days. He talks junk to our head principal (who happens to be in my office) and the principal response by slamming my office door so hard that particles from the ceiling tiles above me break off and fall into my keyboard and onto my desk. He is escorted off campus by our school resource officer.
- 2:45 - We bring in the drug dealer. She is a beautiful 14-year old Hispanic girl who speaks softly and admits to doing drugs, but not selling them. A search of her belongings suggests otherwise. We uncover two pills. Vicatin. She breaks down and cries. She sells them for $10/pill.
- 3:00 - The drug dealer names a client. A big white boy with a mental history and at least one attempted suicide. While Carrington calls his teacher to send him to my office, I go to intercept him to ensure he doesn't ditch anything in a trash can or bathroom. I turn the corner near his class, and I see him putting something into the tiny crevice of a locker. I inquire, he says it was just gum. I walk toward it, at which he rushes back to the locker and pulls out a dime bag of weed. I rush over and try to apprehend it, but he is putting it into his mouth. We struggle with each other, but he is much bigger than me. I call over the radio for backup. The bag goes into his mouth. My hands are on his jaw. He swallows and coughs violently.
- 3:15 Law enforcement arrives. Both students are suspended for 10 days. Juvenille petitions filed. The boy's father is furious with us (he himself has spent 12 years in a federal prison for drug-dealing and counterfeiting).
- 4:30 - Eat Lunch.
- 5:00 - Clean up the mess on my desk: confiscated pills and money, suspension paperwork and student files, police reports.
- 6:00 - Head to the southern end of the county where our boys will play in-town rival SV High School. We're all on high alert, and extra police have been called in to work the game since last week's home game had a fight and a student arrested for possession of a firearm.
- 7:00 - Game starts without incident. Stand at the gates with our School Resource Officer and keep out suspended students.
- 8:30 - First fight breaks out between two girls from the opposing schools. Police escort out of the stadium. SV is putting on a clinic, 26-6.
- 9:00 - Game ends, 33-8. Our boys hang their heads and board the bus.
- 9:30 - Two more fights erupt in the parking lot.
- 10:30 - Stadium empty, parking lot clear, we get the green light to go home.
- 10:45 - Walk into the living room of our house and find my darling wife and my adorable puppy sleeping peacefully on the couch. I join them.
