Wednesday, March 28, 2007

sadness

the other day a kid and i had a class in class - at the beginning. he was drinking pop (against the rules) and i told him to throw it away. he chucked it across the room and when i called him on it he retorted with, "throw was the operative word." snot head. so he went to the office. anyway, he came by this morning to apologize. he's overall a good kid and one i like. i'd checked with the office the other day and the vp explained some personal issues he's dealing with. when i offered him my sympathy and fogiveness today he said his sister will probably be dead in the next few months. she's anorexic and his family can't afford the institutional care she needs. apparently she eats a 300 calorie "cookie" a day. i know what it's like to anticipate the death of a loved one. it's hard. kids deal with tough things. why oh why.

3 comments:

ewesa said...

it's got to be really difficult to define what is a "fair" response under those conditions- throwing the can is not acceptable, but the reasons behind it make it hard to judge. you have a very hard job.

jrm said...

let me make one comment (even though i could make many):

that kid is cool, because he knows and used the word "operative."

plainoldsarah said...

i like comments! thank you joseph. and yes, he's a pretty cool kid.