Elections at School

Weekly Highlights:

• Professional Day - Had to work but there were no kids
• Election Day- No School/No Work
• Wednesday: Lots of Dark Circles on Staff Faces

Professional Day was interesting, I had been complaining all weekend about having to work when there was no work to be done. I say it was interesting because I got to see how the school runs when no kids are around. Let me tell you, so totally peaceful.

Election Day was a no school day since all the schools are used as polling places. I got to go to one of my old elementary schools. Nostalgia galore for sure.

Today, there are a lot of happy and sad faces. There are dark circles under the eyes of most adults in the building because they all stayed up to watch the outcome of the election. People are happy, people are sad, but I just wish I had gotten more sleep.

Early Voting Season Horrors

I have to say that today and yesterday have been the two WORSE days for traffic/crossing guard duty. This is because the rec center that is next to us and that shares a parking lot with our school has been set up as an early voting center. Now, it doesn't bother our school much in the morning, but during the rest of the day when our teachers and staff are trying to take their lunch breaks, people have been stealing their parking spots.

I had hoped that when I spoke to the two police officers who showed up today that they would help lighten the situation. Instead, they made it worse. They had told me that they were going to direct traffic if it got too bad, but they didn't.

To put it in context, there is a parking lot for the rec center and a street that seperates the parking lot and the school so that cars have access to the parking lot on the side of the school. This street is one way, but the entrance to the street is two way. The is an exit from the rec center parking lot that gives access to the two way entrance. This is not the only exit from the rec center parking lot. I block this exit off every day so that it is easier for our crossing guard who controls the main roadway. Because of early voting there has been so many people and so much traffic that everytime I block off that exit, people try to come down the wrong way of the one way street. I have to stand in the middle of the lane and turn people away even though there are "Do Not Enter" sign all over the place. It's very frustrating.

What was most frustrating is that there were 2 Caucasian Elderly couples that seemed to think that I was supposed to be at their beck and call to help them get out of the parking lot. One of the two couples were particularly rude. They tried to come down the one way street the wrong way and I stopped them. I told them they had to go the other way. The wife was actually pretty nice. I told them that we had kids coming out of the school and she was very understanding. It was the husband who wouldn't take no for an answer. He was very adamant that I had to help him right then and there. I had walked away from the car thinking that they would be like every other sane person and go the correct way. But instead they apparently had decided to just wait right in the way of everyone. As I was radioing for help, i feel a tap on my shoulder. It was the same rude old man who was now yelling in my face that I needed to get traffic moving. So finally I told him "Sir, I am trying my best to get help so that I can help move traffic. But You need to get BACK in your car now!" And then I walked away. I can't believe I have to suffer one more day of this because they decided to extend voting. This is ridiculous.

A Calm Week and Missing Students

It has been a really calm week. In my line of work, I find that awesome. How many calm weeks have I had since school started? A total of 1. Some of the staff are joking that since we've had a calm week so far, tomorrow is going to be hectic. But I am going to be optimistic and hope not.

As for the missing students, they aren't really missing. I just liked that title. No, the 7th grade got to go to Medieval Times today. We have around 20 seventh grade students who stayed behind and they get to have a weird schedule. They spend the whole day together and then they get to eat 8th grade lunch. I wish I could chaperone some of these field trips. These kids get to go to a lot of cool places. Who wouldn't want to go see some jousting?

Fright Night

Weekly Pondering:

This Friday is Fright Night. My school's first SGA Dance. I won't be going since it's my partner who gets to do all the overtime, but hey, I get to keep my Friday nights to myself. Most of my kids want me to show up. For some reason they think seeing me in a dress would be awesome.

I'm having quite the hard time keeping a balance between caring for these kids and being professional. It's a very fine line. They want me to be their friend so badly but at the same time I have to be the authority. I'm young and I don't feel all the much older than these kids. In recent news, I've had to fight the children when it comes to them calling me by my first name. I've got kids who call me Maggie, Rosie and Mrs. John Wall. But I refuse to let them call me by my real first name. When they ask me why, I say it's because it implies a personal relationship that isn't there. I am Security first, friend second. Forever and always.

Theme of the Week: Parents

Parents are the first and last authority on what their kids become. Parents can blame the environment, the child's peers or their bad lot in life, but in the end, it is the parent who determines what kind of life their child has. This is what has been bothering me this week and many weeks before this.

There's a child at this school, who doesn't want to be in school and has no respect for authority. When we call his mother every time he gets suspended, all she does is make excuses. Now, I know. The mother does care about her son. She works 60-70 hours a day to make ends meet. And I'm pretty sure she's a single mother. But when it comes down to it, there is NO need to lie for your child. There is NO need to make excuses when your child is messing up inside and outside school. In the end, It is her fault that she is letting her child become a juvenile delinquent.

People tell me, how can the mother control her child if she's always working? I say, parents should be instilling the values that make a child controllable from birth.

People say, what do you know? You're not a parent! I say, I may not be a parent but I was raised well and I grew into a respectable and responsible human being. Thank God for that. I also have seen in the short time that I have been a middle school security guard, that there are many ways of good parenting and many ways of bad. What the bad parenting all have in common are excuses and too much freedom given to the kids with not enough responsibility. What I see in common with all the GOOD parenting, is all good parents hold their children responsible for their actions in some way or another.

Now there are exceptions to every rule. The homeless girl who went to Harvard for example. She practically raised herself and her support system was mostly herself with a little help from a generous hometown. But she's one in a million.

My point is, love your kids enough to say no. To be there when they need you and not only when they want you. Love your kids enough to teach them to live the good life. And by good life, I mean one that keeps you out of trouble and alive. That's all I'm asking, is that too much to wish for?

Befriending the Tough Chick

There's those girls in every grade. You know them well, and probably hated them or were them in school. The tough girl. The biggest and baddest girl in the grade. I hated those girls when I was in middle school and avoided them in high school.

Now, It's my job to befriend her. In the 8th grade, we have 2 girls who are the biggest troublemakers of the grade. One, is actually a pretty nice girl, but has to have this front up in order to survive. The other, is plain trouble.

The real troublesome one, has decided recently to hate me again. She tried to get past me for being late to lunch by writing a fake pass in her agenda book and trying to say that her teacher made her late. I only knew it was fake because the Lunch Aide saw the girl write the pass. I mean seriously? She wouldn't confess until I threatened to walk her around the school to find the teacher. And then she had the nerve to think that lying to me and forcing me to threaten her would give her a free pass. She also convinced another student to do the same thing she did.
Lesson: Do not make the sercurity guard mad. She will take you to the office and give you over to the Admin.
Result: Lunch Detention.

The other girl, the...I'll call her the nice one. She was walking in the hall today, with an open cup of water. Another young girl came racing down the hallway and smashed into her. So, because she was in front of all her friends, she started yelling and making a ruckus. She threatened the younger girl that she was going to smash her face in after school. She said this in my presence and then again said it to me in the presence of one of her friends while in the bathroom. I do bathroom checks. I had to report her to the Admin. If I had not done this, the "nice" girl would have really waited after school to smash in the other girl's face.

Result: Being dragged to office, given a warning. The girl got on her bus and went home. Crisis averted easily.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school! Things went quite well!

6th graders are so cute! At least on the first day they are. My post between classes is in the 6th grade hallway and they would swarm me every time to ask where each classroom was. What was even funnier than the 6th graders was having to give directions to 7th and 8th graders who should know where all the classrooms are.

Lunch time was fun too. Unfortunately I had to get stern with the 7th graders because they were up to their silly antics again just like last year. Some kids never learn. I had to threaten an entire table that I would separate them for the entire year at lunch if they didn't behave. That got their attention. 8th graders decided they were going to run around the cafeteria and fight over a hat. On the first day of school. Sigh. Got to love kids, they just don't know any better sometimes.

The only real incident of interest today was my former 8th graders from last year thought they could still run the school. They showed up before our school let out and just ran rough shod over me, ran into the building and caused all kind of ruckus. I had to write my first incident report of the year. I feel sorry for them that they are going to get in trouble tomorrow at their High School so early in the year, but they need to learn manners, rules and respect. They obviously didn't learn that in Middle School, so they will learn it now or never.