One Bad Apple

Anyone in education will tell you how amazing it is that one kid - one! just one! - can change the entire group dynamic of a class, or even a team of kids. A class will have one personality when this kid is there, and completely different when this kid is gone.

The Queen Bee Bully is such a kid.

She has been, quite honestly, probably the biggest pain in our neck all year. She is the sort of kid who can find the weak point in others and exploit it. She loves to cause drama. She loves to stir up trouble. She has an opinion - usually not nice - about everyone and every thing and isn't shy about expressing it. She was in our remediation class (she's smart as a whip but won't do work) until we saw that she was in there for the sole purpose of tormenting the other kids. Since she had all her work done, and was passing (at that time), we exited her and I told guidance that we wouldn't let her back no matter how much her aunt demanded it. Those kids needed to be in a classroom without this little snot bothering them and causing disruptions every five minutes.

Her aunt, bless her heart, is amazingly patient, but also doesn't realize that it's about time that Queen Bee Bully realizes that her actions have consequences. She wasn't happy when we said that we wouldn't escort her from class to class so she wouldn't get in trouble in the hallway. She's old enough to know better, and they certainly aren't going to hold her hand and escort her throughout the 8th grade, so she was going to just have to do her best and deal with the repercussions of her actions. Time to grow up.

Eventually she earned herself a trip to Alternative School (for tormenting Little Big Boy and getting into a fight at lunch). The team all breathed a sigh of relief and I'm including the kids here. It was like a different world with her gone. You could almost feel the tension float away. The kids were thrilled that she was no longer lurking around, talking trash, and generally making life hell.

Anyhow, according to our calendar, she was due back this week. However, we had five days of flooding and were hoping that meant she wouldn't be back for another week. She also owed a few days for being suspended (again, for fighting) from alternative school. So, if we were lucky, we might see her for a week.

We weren't lucky.

She showed up again Tuesday and the drama started before third period was over. She was up to her old tricks, the kids were upset, and the nice, smoothly functioning team of kids was in an uproar. You could feel the tension on the team now that all the kids knew she was back. If anything, she came back with a worse attitude than she had when she left.

She's in my Fourth Period Class of Malcontents, and as soon as she walked back in the room and sat in her isolation seat (cannot sit with others, big surprise), I had kids demanding to be moved away from that part of the room as she was trying to get them to pass notes to other kids. Great. I rearranged everything and now she's on her own little island.

And we had so much fun when she was gone.

However, she got mouthy with Mrs. Social Studies, started threatening another girl with a fight in the bathroom, and we walked her over to The Enforcer and he said he'd put her in ISS for the rest of the week. Thank goodness. He also said her aunt was supposed to come next week and withdraw her as they were moving to another state. We can hope.

I feel bad for her because this kid has not had a good home life. She's never lived with her mother (I don't think she knows who dad is) and is raised by an aunt. She has BIG issues. However, when it comes down to it, I'd rather see her gone than see the other 94 kids on my team all twisted up in knots because of her antics. I absolutely despise bullies, and I don't care if they big, little, male, or female. And this kid is, without a doubt, one of the nastiest bullies I've ever run across.

So hopefully she will leave next week and we can end the year on a calm note.

Hopefully.