Incident Occurred Thursday February 7, 2008
At 1:15 p.m., Sections 72, 73, and 74 made our last rotation of the day. Section 74 was lined up in the hall while Section 73 was leaving 324 to go into 325. Student and the rest of her class lined up (although there was some play-fighting by the boys in the back of the line, I could not address that because I was attempting to clear my classroom of Section 73).
Approximately 1:20
Section 74 entered my classroom as I handed each student their daily work. When I entered the classroom, a few students were away from their seats. I told them to move to their assigned seats and they did. Student, while other students were moving, walked out of the classroom. I caught her going around the corner and said, “Student, you have just walked out of my classroom.” Student replied, “I’m going to get my bag from Mrs. Grade Coach.” I said, “You need to come back in the classroom and ask permission first, you can’t just walk out.” She interrupted me halfway through and said, “I’m going to Mrs. Grade Coach’ and then started screaming and cursing about how she wasn’t “fucking” walking out. She walked away and I made a note to call her mother after school about her walking out of the classroom.
Approximately 1:25
Student returned, walked into the classroom, and slammed the door. She started shouting about how she didn’t walk out. Then, she took her seat with her work in front of her. She seemed to be calming down and in the past I’ve had success with giving her time to herself before I engage with her. Because she had already escalated herself to this degree and because I was the target of her anger, I was unable to implement any calming suggestions or techniques with her for fear of escalating the situation further.
However, one minute later, she escalated the situation further. I saw her walk out of the classroom with her hand to her ear and heard, “Mom, yeah. . .” and it trailed off as she closed the door and went into the hallway to call her mom and tell her that I had reported her for walking out of the classroom (which I had not, as of yet, giving her time to get to Mrs. Grade Coach’ office and back as she claimed she was).
1:26 – 1:29
At that point, I called down to the office and reported that I needed an administrator to deal with a student who has walked out of my class on the cell phone with her mother, and that this was a student with particularly high-risk tendencies. Meanwhile, I kept my door propped open so that I could hear and see Student (as I was still responsible for her as a member of my classroom, and I periodically poked my head out to check on her.
Older Sister (Student’s sister), came down the hall and saw Student yelling and screaming on her cell phone. Older Sister walked up to me and asked what happened. Since our interagency meeting regarding Student’s behavior, Student and Older Sister’s mother has asked us to let Older Sister know what is going on. I started explaining the situation to Older Sister starting with Student walking out of the classroom without permission. Student overheard my conversation with Older Sister and started screaming into her cell phone about how “now Ms. Me is yelling at Older Sister” when Older Sister and I were having a conversation in normal tones of voice.
1:30
Seeing that Student had gotten herself even more worked up and that there was still no administration or school police/NTAs in the vicinity, I stepped back into my classroom to call again for an administrator and an NTA/School Police. At this point Teacher 2 and Teacher 1 had put their heads out of their classrooms to see what was going on, recognized the players in the situation, and tried to intercede. I tried to keep myself away from Student’s line of sight as much as possible, but she was still screaming about how I had cursed at her and reported her for walking out of classroom. Ms. Teammate1 was trying to keep her kids in the classroom and Ms. Teammate2 had closed her door. Neither of them witnessed what followed.
After Teacher 1 and Teacher 2 attempted to intervene while we waited for NTAs and School Police, I closed my classroom door in an attempt to keep Student out and away from harming either myself or another student. (Prior to winter break, there was an incident where Student had another student on a table and was strangling him.) I was concerned about anyone initially involved being in her line of attack. My students attempted to continue their warm-ups while Student continued screaming in the hallway. I was explaining how to do a bar graph for one of the problems and had just moved into the space in front of my classroom entrance (my back was to the door) when I heard my windowpane shatter and the shards of glass fly up and hit the back of my shirt and pants and fall down to the floor behind me. When I turned around, the door had been punched out. Although the glass hit me I was physically unharmed, although any of my students at my front table could have been seriously injured had I not been placed exactly where I was.
I am unsure at what point in all of this the NTAs and School Police arrived and managed to get Student away. In the moments after the glass was broken, I looked out the window and could not see any adult other than Teacher 1, although they could have been out of my line of sight. Shaking, I tried to keep my kids on their warm-ups and transitioning into grading their previous day’s work. At some point in that transition, Teacher 1 knocked on my door and asked if I was okay and if I had a broom to clean up the glass. A split second later, MaryEllen asked me to make a statement. She and I stepped into the maintenance area next to my classroom to have a private summary while Teacher 1 supervised my students.
That was the end of my interaction with adults until 3:00 when I received a call from Mrs. Grade Coach. Older Sister was left behind in the hallway after this and she seemed uncertain where to go and what to do. I asked her if she was okay and she seemed in shock. A few minutes later she disappeared from the hallway, I do not know to where.
