Please... don't help

Today, March 4, was a "Day of Action" at California's schools, where the CTA encouraged teaches to stand outside their schools and hand out flyers to parents and anyone who will listen to save the jobs of teachers who are slated to be pink-slipped. Teachers were also encouraged to talk up the situation to their students.

At the high school that sits near the middle school at which I work, I heard that about 150 students staged a walkout during the morning. Word of this quickly found its way via texting to many of the students at my site. That's when the fun began.

As I tried to teach my first period class of 8th graders, we kept hearing yelling and commotion in the hallway as students who had left their classes without permission were walking down the hallway trying to agitate some sort of mass walkout. All it took was for me to remind my students that if they left my classroom, I would record it as a cut. They all stayed put. Meanwhile, the idiots in the hallway did their best to strike a blow to the man, but their efforts had fizzled out by the end of first period. In the middle of second period, it was decided to up the ante: someone pulled a fire alarm.

The 900 students of my school, along with about 500 students of the elementary school next door, all had to file out of the building. It was absolute chaos, as all the students knew why we were out there. Probably 99% of these agitators who were calling for a walkout didn't even know what they were protesting; they just wanted an excuse to spice up their day and get out of class.

We got back into the classroom just in time for second period to end and third to begin. My third period 8th graders came in to my class in a very boisterous manner, flush with excitement at what had just occurred. They were high-fiving each other and talking about the blow they had struck. They asked me what I though of all this, and I told them if their idea of helping us teachers was being obnoxious during instructional time and pulling fire alarms, then they needed to stop immediately, because they were just making the situation much more stressful.

As for who pulled the fire alarm, one thing about middle schoolers is that they cannot keep their traps shut for the life of them. By fourth period, I was overhearing hushed conversations where students were whispering to each other that they knew who had pulled the alarm. I kept one girl in particular who I had overhead tell another student that she wouldn't tell him who pulled the alarm because - get this - "You're white, and white people snitch." With a statement like that, I had to see what she knew. She refused to give up the name of the alarm puller to me, but I could tell she really did know who pulled the alarm.

So guess what? This white boy snitched! I emailed my principal and told her that she might want to have a chat with that particular student who, with the right kind of incentive or motivation, might be able to shed light on the subject of who pulled the fire alarm. As it turned out, there were several other loose-lipped students out there who had already given up the goods, but my student served as yet more solid verification. The alarm puller got a verbal beatdown from the fire marshal, a bill for fire services rendered, and five days of suspension. Five days, huh? What she did should require an instant expulsion, yet again proving my previously discussed point about why our education system is so abysmal.

Through all of this chaos today, one thing I didn't get to do very much of was actually teach. Thank you CTA.

Good Day to You, Sir