Smoking Skunks Get Smacked. And I Just Feel Bad.

Today, a half hour after we had already begun first period, one of my students walked into the classroom backwards and stated aloud, "I woked-ed up late." Now this particular student is not one to draw attention to himself, so I knew something was up right away based on his entrance.  As he made his way over to his seat, I was suddenly taken aback by the disgusting odor that hit me.  Now when the odor first permeated my nasal passage, my mind immediately went to a mental image of this student being attacked by a raging pack of rabid skunks on his way in to school this morning.  But I knew better than that, and I knew that this kid, who we will now call Skunk, had just gotten to school after smoking some skunk weed.  (I'll give you one guess as to why it's called "skunk".)  Almost immediately, the entire room was filled with this stench and the other students began yelling, "I'm gonna be sick!", "Can we open a window?!", "What the f*ck Skunk, you stink!"  It was when another teacher popped his head into the room and stated, "Just a heads up, your room reeks of weed," that I knew it was time to bring Skunk down to his administrator.  So I pulled him out into the hallway and just told him to follow me.  As we were walking, Skunk says to me, "Miss, where are we going?"  I replied with, "Skunk... where do you think we're going?"  That's when he dropped to his knees, put his hands up to his face as if he were praying and began sobbing, "NO MISS PLEASE! PLEASE! I'LL DO ANYTHING! THIS IS ONLY MY SECOND TIME SMOKING! I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN MISS PLEASE! MY MOTHER WILL KILL ME! LITERALLY! SHE WILL KILL ME! PLEASE!  I'LL DO ANYTHING!"

I felt awful.  I really do like this student and I hated to see him get in trouble, but I really didn't have a choice.  I explained the whole "mandated reporter" thing that goes along with being a teacher and that my job was on the line if I didn't bring him to his administrator, but he just continued to cry and beg me on his knees not to.  He was a mess.  I was a mess.

Once we got down to the administrator's office, he admitted that he still had some weed on him and he took it out. The school resource officer collected the "evidence", but didn't arrest him once Skunk gave up who his "dealer" was.  And it was none other than my golden child from 2 years ago... Sonic.  That totally bummed me out.

The whole situation really just bummed me out.  I felt awful getting this kid in as much trouble as I did, but he really didn't leave me with any other option.  Apparently once his mother got to school, she smacked him really hard across the face... twice... before an administrator had to step in.  I don't even want to imagine what will happen to him tonight when he's home.

I know that what I did today, had to be done.  I just feel awful having done so.

New Teacher Tip Of The Day:  Our job is not easy.