Just Another Monday in Special Ed

We are closed for awhile because of the virus (but who isn’t these days) so I did class on google with one of my students today. She’s 5 and in the middle of the lesson she stopped me and said that I had the fingernails of a beautiful timber cat. And she hoped that one day she would too. 

1. What is a timber cat?

Let’s talk about last Monday. 

Day after daylight savings. Week of the full moon. Week of Friday the 13th. Corona virus is spreading around the globe while lice, influenza A and Step are all flying through my room like bats out of hell. It’s 11am and we are already circling the drain. The melt downs are real, the paperwork is piling up and then it happens. 

I have a kid who always wears the legs of his pants tucked into his socks. This is special ed, so we don’t question it. You do you buddy. He didn’t look good and I had sent him down to the nurse twice because he’s complaining of stomach issues, but they said he had no fever and sent him back. About 11:15am he stands up and asks to go to the bathroom very urgently. I say yes! Run! He starts and then he stops with a panicked look on his face. And then the smell. Oh the smell. He had diarrhea so bad it filled his pant legs. 

Let’s start with last Tuesday. Not a Monday because that would be too easy. I have a kiddo that I adore. He’s bright, funny, and street smart. He’s also a huge behavior problem. It started over a pencil in his general ed class. Someone had one. He wanted it. You know, the usual. He takes his dads watch that he has hidden in his desk, wraps it around his hand and tries to punch the kid with the pencil. Cue him being sent to my room. 

All the rage. He’s pissed. And not just sit there and be mad pissed, but throw things and yell pissed. I ignore this behavior and continue teaching because it’s clear he wants attention for his actions. Then it happens. He takes the watch and tries to punch me. I block the punch, grab the watch out of his hand and tell him to take a break in the quiet area or sit in a chair, because I will not talk to him unless he has a calm body and normal voice. Cue a two hour melt down. Pencils are everywhere. Books are everywhere. Shit is destroyed. I’m a bitch, I’m a whore, you name it, I’m that. All on a Tuesday. After about two hours he calms. I have him sit and show me his calm body for three minutes before I will talk to him. 

When we finally talk I asked him why he was so mad. He said because he made a poor choice. And I said yeah, we all make mistakes. Mistakes are fine, you just say you’re sorry and try again. He said he thought I’d be disappointed in him and wouldn’t love him any more if I found out he’d try to fight someone over a pencil. 

Hi. Welcome to Just Another Monday in Special Ed. 

I’m here because I have a job that I love and no place to document the stories (some good, some not so good) that come out of my experiences every day. I always swear I’m going to write a book about my experiences when I’m old, but if I wait until I’m old to document it, I won’t remember. So here I am.