Yesterday, I emailed all the disciplinarians at the school (principals, administrators, the works) and politely asked what is being done about referrals that they receive from me.  I subtly attached the last dozen referrals I had submitted that have not gotten a reaction since, in some cases, September of last year.

2 administrators responded saying something along the lines of "My door is always open if you'd like to conference about this."  The others haven't said anything yet.  So I went down to converse with one of the ladies who responded... you know, to "conference."

When I walked into her office, the first thing I noticed was piles upon piles of messy-looking paperwork.  It was literally above her head.  (There will seem to be a lot of hyperbole in this blog entry.  You have my word, though, that it is with no exaggeration that I relate these events).  I explained the problem, being very careful to convey that I did not blame any particular person or department, I just want to know what's going on after I write these kids up for cussing me out or worse.

She proceeded to "check the system" of referral submissions.  This happened after 10 minutes (again, no exaggeration) of her trying to log in to this system, because she had FORGOTTEN THE PASSWORD and had to answer security questions to retrieve it, the answers to which also took multiple attempts.  Obviously this is not a daily routine for her.  After she got in and was having trouble pulling up students, she said, "Well no one's here..."

It turns out she was entering their last names into the "first name" search field.

After all this mess she was able to tell me about one student, which left 11 unaccounted for.  I had to teach a class at that point so I asked if she could email the disciplinary action that was assigned for each case.  She said "Ok, but you might wanna just come back down here to check later today."  Each of the 2 times I came back her door was locked.  Ugh!





    Also, I had another parent call me, distraught because her daughter is about to go to juvenile prison for truancy and other issues.  Quote from the mom: "I SWEAR we will turn her around.  I'm just BEGGING you to change that last absence to say that she was there."
    I politely told her that that was against the law for me to do, but I volunteered to email her with a sort of testimonial that her daughter is otherwise a good kid. Such a statement in writing might perhaps give a favorable impression to the judge of this young girl.
    In the 10 minutes between this phone call and when I was about to write the email, I saw the daughter skipping class in the hallways with about 6 other kids.  I asked her where she was supposed to be, and she said, "class" as she walked away from me.  I kept trying to talk to her, she kept walking away.  What an idiot!!!!  I emailed her mom a recount of that event and said, basically, good luck with court because I'm not doing any favors for your daughter. 

I have a major headache today.  Half of the work I do at that school is the job that assistant principals leave undone, literally letting it pile up on their desks until it topples over, while enjoying double my salary.  It's just not right.