One day in the life of a local, inner-city elementary school. A Norman Rockwell painting it ain't...
As was her usual method of venting frustration, this fourth
grade girl left her classroom, came out into the hallway, leaned against the
wall, and began to kick against the wall as hard as she could while flailing
her hands side to side-creating a loud ruckus that disrupted the entire
fourth/fifth grade wing of the school.
According to those familiar with this school and this student, this is a
daily event.
After a couple of moments, a
passing adult stopped to see what was going on.
The young girl looked at this adult that had stopped and
said “What
are you lookin’ at, Cracker?”
The adult ignored
that and asked the girl “Where are you supposed to be?” but the girl wouldn't answer the question.
“Where are you supposed to be?" the adult again asked
“Shut up!” the girl exclaimed loudly.
At this point, two teachers came from nearby classrooms to
address the issue. One, a soft-spoken
female, asked the girl to return to class.
“No!” Said the girl. “I hate this school, I don’t want to be here!
-- I want to go to Lakeview”
(This school has two “behavior technicians”-however they were
both inundated handling other student misbehavior issues. On this one recent day at this one school,
one young 3rd grade student was cuffed and taken into police custody
for reasons unknown, and one kindergarten boy punched a kindergarten girl in
the face, injuring her to a point where she was bleeding profusely…this in
