Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Come Back You Cowardly Rascals!

So I walk my tutoring kids up to the office for dismissal this afternoon and see Mrs. Talladega, the Guidance Goober, and a few others who are walking their students up as well. Someone asks The Secretary where The Principal is...her van was parked out back but she's not to be found.

"Oh, she's chasing skateboarders," says The Secretary.

"Oh foot?" Mrs. Tallaedga asks.

"Oh yes! She saw them out front, called the police, and went out to talk to them and they took off. She took off after them. Mr. Enforcer hopped in his van and took off as well."

We stand there with our mouths hanging open.

The Principal is out there running after a bunch of twerps on skateboards?

Now to put this in proper perspective...The Principal is always, but always, dressed perfectly. Even when I've seen her in jeans and a sweatshirt she manages to look elegant and refined like Southern ladies are supposed to look. She looks more put together in her grubbies than I can manage to look when I try to get all dolled up for a wedding or a banquet.

So, to picture her running after a bunch of boys on skateboards is just almost beyond imagining. However, they've been wrecking the planters in front of our building, destroyed some concrete benches and planters all around the school, and damaged one of our storage buildings by their stunts. Not to mention skating all over our human-sized chessboard out back so it will need to be repainted - yet again. The Principal, in short, has had it with these kids.

So she took out after them.

A few minutes later she comes back in, a broad smile across her face, her hair barely out of place.

"Did you get them?" we ask.

"Oh yes," she says. "They weren't very smart. They never scattered the whole time, they just kept running in a pack so it was easy to track them down. Mr. Enforcer even got ahead of them and turned and blocked them in. And the police gave them all citations.'

She pumps her fist in the air and walks back to her office.

You know, there's some days you just need a brisk run to relieve the stress. Even if it means you're chasing skaters.

2 comments:

CaliforniaTeacherGuy said...

I wish our principal would take skateboard infractions as seriously as your principal does. I mean, she wouldn't have to run after them, but, heck, she could sure scare the bejeebers out of them by laying down the law for a change. As it is, they skate just about anywhere on the school grounds with impunity. I've given up saying anything to them. Nobody backs me up.

Mrs. T said...

I can't get the song "I'm Always Chasing Skaters" (to the tune of "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows") out of my head now.