Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Words and Weapons

I love the kid, I really do. But there are no two ways about it: bringing a knife to school was a bad idea.

My class runs a lot more smoothly now that my honorary King of Disruption has been suspended (who can say for how long.) But I am sad.

This is the same child who told me not to wear my keys around my neck on a chain, because he had been "jumped" on the way home from school and his chain had been ripped off his neck. Apparently, his walk home was often scary. Apparently, the knife was for protection. Apparently, he won't be going to a decent high school and may even face juvenile detention.

The following is the document I had to submit for his suspension hearing. Obviously, all names have been changed:




To: Ms. Dean of the Middle School
From: Ms. Star
Re: Dequon Jones Superintendent Suspension Hearing Documents

Test Scores: Dequon does quite well on essays in my class. He is one of the few students who regularly receives scores of 4 on essays, and he hands in most of his work (though not always with all necessary steps.) He has even had a few essays posted on the bulletin board. He is a talented writer but does not spend enough time polishing and revising his writing.

Class Behavior Anecdotal: Dequon has a serious problem controlling his talking. For example, during one class period he had a loud conversation about the Video Music Awards across the classroom while I was teaching. This went on for the entire period and Dequon ignored all of my requests to be quiet. He is often not talking to anyone in particular on occasions like this - just to anyone who will listen. He has also regularly refused to spit out gum, stay in his seat, and, occasionally to do his work. When assigned consequences for his behavior, Dequon often becomes quite angry and refuses to do work for the rest of the day. I have once had to call his house from class because he refused to stop talking, and even then, he did not stop.

Dequon is quite intelligent, and has shown me that he is capable of doing good work in both English and Social Studies classes. However, his behavior is such a constant distraction that is often impossible for me to teach other students while Dequon is in the room. He seems completely unable to control his need to “perform” for other students, and this shows in the way he deals with authority figures. Dequon is quite reasonable when I speak to him one on one, but completely unreasonable when I speak to him during class.

At the parent/teacher meeting for class 802, I gave Dequon’s father a letter stating that I was concerned about Devon’s inability to control his behavior in my class. His father signed this letter and returned it to me. When I spoke with Dequon’s mother at parent/teacher conferences, I emphasized the same point. I also spoke with her by phone on several occasions when I assigned Dequon Friday detention because of his inability to control his behavior.

Dequon was quite upset about being assigned Friday detention. He told me that, if he stayed after school to serve detention, he would not be able to walk home with his friends and would be unsafe because of this. He reported “getting jumped” after school a few times previous to this. Because he wanted to avoid staying late, he told me that his mother was aware that he was staying, even though I had yet to reach her (I had left messages at home, which he later told me he had erased.)

When I spoke to his mother, I noted that most teachers probably said the same thing about Dequon: “He’s so smart, but…” I said that I hoped that soon teachers would be able to say of him: “He’s so smart, and…” I continue to hope this, but it has yet to happen.

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