Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Oh, Gregory

I was thinking today, as my kids were all working on their writing assignment (what would YOU do if you ran away, by the way?) about an incident that happened while at my senior internship, and I about died from laughter, thinking about it. Of course, then the kids, who already think I'm crazy, were really concerned. Here it is:

I was working in a fifth grade classroom and had *taken over* for the semester as teacher. I had walked the kids down to PE, on a cold, rainy day, and had left, not thinking anything about it. When I picked them up, 45 minutes later, we marched, single file, up the stairs, and into the classroom. We started our reading lesson, and about 20 minutes in, I realized one of my students was missing.

Now, you have to know something about this kid. First of all, He was GIANT. He had about 4-5 inches on me! Secondly, along with his height, he had a ginormous head. He was also a klutz. And a mess. And was just generally a "spaced out," child. And, like most teachers know, weird behaviors in the child are usually explained by the behaviors of the parents. His mom, was a cymbol wearing, grass juice drinking, belly dancing for a living, kind of mom.

It so totally explains it.

Right. So, missing student. I asked the class where he was and several of them told me he had fallen in the mud and went to the clinic to call his mom for new clothes.

An hour passes, no student comes back.

I call up to the front office and they tell me that the clinic has been closed all day (apparently nurses get sick too,) and that they haven't seen him at all.

The teacher who is in charge, takes over, and he calls down to PE, and they haven't seen him. Then he calls the office and gets them in on the search party. They make several announcements over the loud speaker, but still, no sign.

Finally, they pull out the big guns, they call the police. Soon we have police searching our little suburban school campus, and police dogs coming into our room to get a scent sample from his backpack.

About an hour before the end of the day they FINALLY find him.

He is in the PE bathroom. He is wet and muddy. He is crying. And he is completely clotheless!!!

Apparently, after going to the clinic and finding it closed, he decided to remedy that problem by washing his jeans in the sink. So he gets undressed, washes them, and then, because we all know what happens to wet jeans, he can't get them back on. Somehow or another his shirt gets soaked so he takes that off TOO! And he just sits there. All day. And students from the afternooon PE (kindergarteners and first graders,) come in all day and whisper about "naked boy," but NO ONE thinks to tell a teacher about a non dressed student in the boys bathroom.

So, he was slightly embarressed the next day, but all I have to say is, he's lucky that didn't make the news!!!!

1 comment:

Emily said...

Britt- that was a stitch!! I needed the laugh! Thanks!