TGIF: A Roundup of Various Happenings PLUS Dan's Mental Break!

"IT'S FRIDAY, HOORAY!" I couldn't agree more with these sentiments. One of the kids shouts this every week. It amuses me. This week was actually pretty good for being the second week back after Winter Break. (Not CHRISTMAS Break. Winter Break. Got it? Good. Need to make sure you're being PC, now.) Here are a few of the random events from the week:

- Tuesday morning, we were distracted because of some other things that were going on, and the kids were left largely to themselves. It was an opportunity to run a bit of a test, too, to see if the stuff would end up in the right cubbyholes, etc. Here's what went down: Joann stole a DVD from the shelf and put it in her bag when no one was looking. Jordan got excited and ran at someone. He wanted to take away their dry-erase marker, for some reason. Tara put her journal in the wrong place, and it wound up at someone else's house that night, making her all mad about it the next morning. Overall, though, most things ended up where they should've been.

- We discovered that Tara was stealing pencils and markers from the room, which explains why we were always short. The entire front pocket of her book bag was stuffed full of them. When confronted with this, she insisted they were hers. All of them. And she needed them at home. She was not amused when we took them away. The next day's "morning lesson" was all about stealing and lying. That's the second time this year we've had that lesson...

- Joann's parents sent back the DVD. She didn't like that one bit. That set off the first tantrum of the week. We had three more after that. By the way, Joann's tantrums? They're amazing. If there was some way to harness all the energy released during them, we'd probably be able to power the school for a day. You think you've seen a child scream, wail, kick, and flail about at the grocery over a candy bar? HA! You haven't seen anything.

Anyhow, those are the major happenings of the week. I should keep a journal someday, doing minute-by-minute logs of the minutia we deal with every day. Then again, that might be overly tedious... Hmm... Still, I'll consider it.

So, the story you've all been waiting for a long time to hear: Dan's Mental Break! Really, I don't know if it was a TRUE mental break, but it seems close enough to me. As you may remember, Dan has a problem with people who don't fit his definition of "normal". He calls them weirdos. That is tame, fortunately, because he could call them a ton of other, crueler things if he wanted, I'm sure. He has the vocabulary, at least.

Well, one day, he absolutely lost it. I don't remember the exact trigger at this point, but he went nuts. He started lashing out at the "weirdos" yelling that he's going to "kick them all until they're dead!" He literally was kicking at them, spitting at them, hissing like a cat, and screaming. The teacher's patience for him was thin long before he got to this stage. Earlier that day, he threatened to kill me, and said that he would sue the school for blah blah blah. Where he gets this stuff from, I have no idea. His excuse was, as always, that the weirdos were controlling his mind and making him say and do these things.

So what does the teacher do? Well, let me preface this by saying she is awesome. She grabs a desk, throws open the door, and drags it out into the hall. Then she runs back, grabs him by the arm, and drags him out. She sits him down, lectures him, etc. He calls her a bitch, she comes back in, calls his mom, and so on. Meanwhile, Dan is looking in the window, glaring at us, and spitting on the glass. It isn't long before there's a river of spit flowing down the glass. We're just ignoring him though, and the other kids, despite all of this, seem to not be noticing him. It's like he never started yelling to begin with. Must be nice...

Meanwhile, one of the aides goes to get something from our room across the hall. She opens the door, and--get this--he tries to knock her down with the desk! That was the final straw. The teacher dragged him down to the office and sat him down, leaving him for the principal to deal with. The funny thing was that the principal didn't seem to want to do a thing with him--he called his mom to come get him and left him sitting on the chairs in the waiting room up front. When I left for the day, his mom still hadn't arrived. There was spit everywhere though. I felt bad for the custodian that had to care for that later...

The funniest thing about all this was the fact that EVERYONE was just completely ignoring the kid sitting in the front office! He's sitting there, covered in spit, and no one even looked at him. Not even an amused/shocked stare! The secretary could care less, the other staff members just walked on by, and students/parents just sat far away and minded their own business. It almost seemed to disturb him more that he wasn't getting attention for his behavior. As I left the building, I smiled and waved at him. He just glared at me in response, and spat on the floor.

TGIF...

Wow. This has been one of the craziest days we've had that I can ever remember. If this were Thursday, I'd probably call in sick tomorrow... Why was today so nuts? Well let me just give you a synopsis of a few of today's events...

- Samantha (a girl you've not met yet, her introduction will come next week) was wired from the beginning. This means she spends all day shouting at other kids. This gets Jordan upset, of course. Later in the day, she escaped from our room and ran down to the cafeteria.

- Several of the other non-verbal kids, taking hints from Samantha, decided that today was shouting day. They spent the entire day screaming as well.

- Dan freaked out because of all this and said "I can't take it anymore! These weirdos are breathing my air!" Later, the teacher asked him to do something, and he called her a bitch. That went over real well. I stole a peak into his journal though (he's been encouraged to write down his thoughts and feelings about people instead of yelling it at them). It was funny. One entry I liked: "I dont like pat they are a bossy jerk."

- By afternoon, Jordan decided it was time to start kicking and hitting everyone. For no reason.

- Ben (another child you've not met just yet) came to school smelling like crap and wearing dirty clothes. Apparently, his mother forgot to bathe him for several days.

- Tara was being an absolute brat and had to be disciplined. (Which consists docking points from her behavior chart [which means she gets less rewards at the end of the week] and being talked to.) This resulted in her bolting from the classroom. When I caught up with her, she said she hated us all and we're all mean. Somehow I got her to come back to the room. Can't remember how offhand...

There was more. But I can't even remember anything additional at the moment. I'm so ready for this weekend.

(One of) The New Kid(s)

As mentioned before, we have 3 new kids this year. Each one of them is TOTALLY different than any of the other kids we currently have, so it's kind of tough getting to know them and figuring them out. One of the new kids, though, I can already foresee being a problem...

This particular student is named Tara. Tara is a short, stout little gal who has Down Syndrome. In case you're not familiar with Down's, it can vary widely from person to person. Some are very high functioning, others not as much. Most (though not all) of the Down's kids I've dealt with can be VERY stubborn when it comes to getting their way. This isn't universally true, though, and seems to hinge somewhat on how well the parents discipline the kid. Sadly, that's lacking in many cases today.

As far as stubbornness, Tara is above and beyond anything I've ever seen in my life. Getting her to follow direction is proving extremely difficult. Incentives that work for all of the other kids don't work as well, so far. (I'm giving it some time though.) While I could ALREADY tell you tons of stories, I will give you two shining examples of this kid's stubbornness:

1) We're in a high school, and while our kids don't go out for any classes, we still occasionally walk in the halls (IE lunch, gym, etc.) Though we try to avoid it, sometimes we're in the halls during the passing periods. Not fun. Some of the kids would plop down or wander aimlessly unless we grab their hand during times like this, so myself and the other aide were a bit distracted with these kids. Suddenly we noticed Tara was gone. A few minutes later, we get a call. Tara wound up following someone she knew to their class and wouldn't leave. The aide went down to fetch them, but she wouldn't come. Finally we had to get the guidance counselor to come and drag Tara out.

2) Today, Tara wanted to go get a drink from the fountain in the hallway. Given that Tara is now on the "not to be trusted in the hall by herself" list (due to the previous incident and several others), she was told no by the other aide. Tara looked at the aide, clenched her fists, and said "YES!" Aide again said no. She clenched tighter, began to shake a little, and suddenly... her pants were wet. Yes, that's right: she peed herself to get back at the aide who wouldn't let her go out in the hall by herself. I couldn't believe it.

Sadly, she had a change of clothes (many of the kids do) in the dresser, so she was able to change and stay. The rest of the day, she was still angry and as stubborn as ever. It was as if the "peeing herself" incident never happened. Unbelievable.