Mid-week

Wednesday, May 7: Headline of this morning's paper: "Groves Student Shot in School Parking Lot." I missed this event by just moments yesterday afternoon. I'd stayed in the classroom until about 4:00, sorting papers, printing papers,stacking papers. . . A required PTA meeting was scheduled for that night, Tuesday, so I dragged myself away from the mountains of papers, and walked out the back door of the school into the parking lot. As I got into the car, I noticed about 20 young men standing in a tight-knick pack around one lone car in the student parking lot. This looked unusual since all students and their cars are usually gone at this time. I thought it might be the school basketball team hanging around. I'd walked by a couple guys wearing sporty shorts and carrying a basketball. I drove home, graded another qualifying set for the SAT's and got ready to go back to the school for the PTA. I missed watching the local news. At the opening of the PTA meeting, the Principal announced that there had been "an unfortunate event" in the parking lot this afternoon...an hour and a half after school's dismissal, she emphasized to parents, lest they might worry about the safety of their children. "And the media is probably going to exaggerate it," she said. "One guy was only grazed in the foot by the bullet, so let's hope it's not blown out of proportion. Students from another school had apparently entered the parking lot and argued with students from our school. Then the fight began. It's being investigated."

Yes, just because five or six shots were fired from a gun and a boy only got hit in the foot...no biggie. The rest of the student population had already been safely transported off campus at 2:30 p.m., and the incident was at 4:00. Ahem! Pardon me, but what about the teachers? Many of them stay after for hours catching up with work. Oh, that's right, they're expendable, as evidenced by the ever-growing vacancy list on the district "career opportunities" website. She added that the automatic phone system had phoned reassurance to all the households in the county. L. got the call at home, while I was out at the meeting.

Today I had occasion to phone the former principal of the school. He retired very suddenly at the end of last year. Some say he was retired not that he retired himself. Then they replaced him with the new regime. Last fall, during a yearbook class discussion, we decided to dedicate the 2008 yearbook to him. It must have been last October that I phoned him to tell him about the dedication and ask his permission. He was delighted. Then, soon after, the yearbook publisher's rep, always snarly and crabby on visits, learned that the former principal would receive the dedication and snapped, "No! You can't do that. It's just not done. It's disrespectful to the new principal if you dedicate a yearbook to the former one. Nope, can't do it!"

So the student yearbook editor, who has always been a "my way or the highway" kind of personality, made the unilateral decision to dedicate the book to a certain teacher SHE wanted, even though the yearbook students had spent time voting for teachers of their choice and then we had a run-off. But the editor dismissed the voted-on teacher, declaring that nobody had consulted HER when we had to the vote (she was sitting right there in class). Long story short, she just made up the pages with her own favorite teacher. At that point, I was just so weary of it all, I decided to let it go and just be thankful to get the pages in. The matter slipped out of my mind, until recently.

The school secretary said she had run into the former principal, and he still thought the yearbook was being dedicated to him. Thus, my phone call, to set it straight. He was very sweet about it and assured me he had moved on to a wonderful new stage in life, retirement. Then he added, "Don't worry about it. The yearbook is the least of your worries." He meant, I assume, the generic "you," referring to the entire staff at the school. He knows what's going on there. He added, "I knew it would be a tough year for everyone with Ms. X (the new principal) coming in. The reason I retired was because I refused to do to my staff what she's doing now." I was happy to hear that her agenda was not my imagination. He said, "She came in with the intention of getting rid of staff and bringing in new people because I refused."

I think his comment about the yearbook being the least of "our" (my?) worries refers to the fallen test scores, the school's failure once again to meet AYP,and the recent shooting. Also the possibility they'll close the school and make everyone re-apply, just for the public drama of it. Right now, though, I'm not even thinking about the possibilities of what might happen next year, I'm just counting the moments until summer.