Well, what a way to welcome black history month, right? Needless to say, the individual behind that outburst earned himself a high-level referral. It went something like this: he and a crowd of other kids were walking around the blacktop (heh) for PE, which I was subbing for. As they passed me, that comment was directed at me. Anyone who knows me knows that it takes a lot to ruffle my feathers. That's not likely to unless....you do it again! On their inaugural passage, I had not actually been identify the culprit.
So as they passed on their second round, all seemed well. But while I appeared to be just nonchalantly standing keeping watch of the general surroundings, I was keen to their presence. I'd been hoping that maybe my hearing had just been off and I was just thinking of Uncle Ruckus. But then, thinking he'd past out of sight, he decided to say it again. Except since I was watching this time, I was of course ready, I observed him.
I called him over to discuss the matter. An apology and a timeout were all that I felt were necessary at that point, but I had no intention of actually filling out a referral. However, he immediately decided to play dumb and claimed he had no idea what I was talking about because he didn't do anything. In fact, he "didn't know" that anything had bee done. Ok cool, then you'll have no problem telling me who did do it. "Did what?" So, it's come to this. You know what, just go take a timeout. "No, I didn't do anything" he said and proceeded to waltz back over to the group.
Third time's the charm. When the came by again, called him over again we discussed it with his actual PE teacher. He continued to pretend he had no idea what was going on, which was fine. He had history with the teacher, so she already was not surprised*. The group psychology of the crowd he was walking with also said that he was the culprit. At that point, his teacher gave him an offer that he simply couldn't refuse: go to timeout.
After class, I filled out the referral. He'll undoubtedly get in trouble for it [I included the language], maybe suspended. As a black boy, that doesn't bode well for his chances to join Psy at UCLA. As it turns out from talking to the teacher, he has had tense moments with her in the past as well. But what separated this one for me was not the words he used; I could really care less about that. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm quite liberal in my use of the word "nigger" and any of its derivatives. The issue here was the utter lack of respect. Had he apologized, he could've just finished PE on timeout and called it a day. Instead, he got a referral added to that because he still had to finish PE on timeout. Ciao.
*The eleven month spell check delay.
*The eleven month spell check delay.
