It Sucks to be Good

There are times when it sucks to be good.

Case in point...my team seems to get all the nut jobs that land in our building. Last year we voiced a bit of a concern about this. After all, there comes a time when you realize that every new kid you get has issues and you start wishing for just one - just one! - normal kid.

Well, as normal as a seventh grader can be.

And we always get the smile, and the compliment, "But you are such a strong team! You do such a great job with these kids!" Well, yeah, thanks, but can we just have a normal one now and then???

Case in point.

On Tuesday we got a new kid whom I'll call Sparky. Sparky has ISSUES. Big huge honkin' issues. We haven't seen much paperwork on him but the short story is he's in State Custody as mom just got sentenced to jail and dad, who was apparently there at the sentencing, was not allowed (or even offered) custody. According to Sparky, he's been in "about 80" schools this year so he's been bounced all over the place and I seriously doubt any learning has taken place.

On the first day he arrived he spent most of the day drawing pictures of guns and self-portraits of himself in handcuffs (quite good actually, but really disturbing).

On his second day he had a melt down in Social Studies, swore at Mr. Social Studies, pitched a fit and stormed out. This kid, by the way, has major issues with men and we all suspect he's been abused by one some time in his past. The female teachers don't have that much trouble with him, but his hackles get raised if there's a male in the picture, whether it's a teacher, a guidance counselor, or a vice principal.

On the third day he had another melt down in Social Studies, this one resulting in a discipline referral. He was sentenced to In School Suspension (ISS).

On the fourth day he gets written up for causing a disruption and throwing things around the ISS room and gets suspended.

He lasted four days.

I have no idea when or if he'll be back. Quite honestly, this kid needs some serious help that our public school system can't provide. He needs a lot of therapy. And he probably needs to be in an environment where our little monsters aren't feeding into his anger and aggravating the situation. He is, quite honestly, a bit scary.

Whatever the case is, it's absolutely tragic that kids like this are out there.