Reminder: the schools are generally well-maintained and the custodial staffs are worth singling out for praise. They are professional and respectful around your kids.
The issues depicted below are not a maintenance problem.
Another reminder: these pics are exceptions rather than the general rule. All the textbooks are not destroyed, but books (and all other school property) are treated roughly by thugs and disrupters.
I think this shot was from LHHS. Does it make you want to increase your taxes? How much do you think a textbook like that costs? Picture your kid using a text with part of the index ripped out, or racist comments written on it with sharpie.
One time in a junior high a quiet, sweet, well-behaved student came up to me and said while doing her assignment she found her text defaced; the vandalism was exceptionally crude (and I am hard to shock). She wanted me to know she had found it and not written it. I told her I was sorry she was exposed to that kind of filth and that it was not aimed at her. I traded that text for one on my desk. That is when you want to hug a kid but don't, lest you end up on the 5 o'clock news. Reassuring words have to suffice. But that's definitely a time when you would hug your own kid who had just been exposed, suddenly, to bad things in life. I left a note for the teacher with a sticky indicating the page.
Grafitti is an interesting problem. It ought not be cleaned up by maint until the SRO (school resource officer, the school police) have seen it. In the cases below I reported the vandalism to the SRO in the next free period.
This was up in Berkner for at least a week. D-hall stairway IIRC. Since I'm not there (or not in that hall) every day I don't know when it comes down. I /do/ know when I see it again after I report it to the SRO.
Not so bad, right? Maybe not worth a blog entry. I mean, the vandalism is irritating and having to clean it up on the taxpayers' dime is obnoxious, but whatever.
This one is a bit worse and is actually in a classroom, and was there for at least 5 weeks. Also in Berkner if you are keeping score:
This one also in the classroom. Don't remember how long it was up:
I have not talked yet (IIRC)about the rough treatment substitute teachers receive because that would sound like personal whining. If you are interested in how subs can deal with challenges they face then stayed tuned for the How To Be A Good Sub post coming later. But I will give you a little taste.
In between classes I stand at the door to great and guide students. I usually have my clipboard with me, but once at LHFC I left it on the teacher's desk. When class started and I retrieved my clipboard it had this sticky attached:
It's hard to read in the phonepic but the sticky on my clipboard reads: "I like it in the butt". Now, it is not clear if the student was indicating they like it in the butt or if it was meant to indicate I, the sub, prefer it that way. Regardless, try to imagine a scenario wherein
1. affixing that note
2. to a sub's property
3. on the teacher's desk
could be an appropriate act. Now imagine a sub picking up the clipboard, and reading that note while addressing the class. For bonus points, imagine your kid sitting in junior high with a kid who is willing to leave notes about anal sex for the teacher.
Some random thoughts
Gang-related grafitti is quite bad in the bathrooms in both jr high and high schools.
Berkner's school colors are, IIRC, green and white. Why does red (or blue, to a lesser degree) appear to be the color of choice for thugs? I have actually had to ask students to quit giving gang hand signs in class about 1x/month.
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