Wicked Witch of the Cafeteria 1997

Another example of people behaving badly was this witch of an administrator in one of the high schools where I worked.




I had a 10th grade African-American boy in my class who had sickle-cell anemia. He was short for his age and developmentally challenged. He had a withered hand and a withered foot, so he had great difficulty carrying the high school books in a backpack as big as he was; the bag probably weighed 30-40 pounds, without exaggeration.



At any rate, he was a sweet kid that looked like a mini Erkle. He was able to achieve, though he was much slower. Another difficulty is that he had this quirk. When he began to experience anxiety, he would masturbate, play with his penis, or whatever you want to call it. He was unconscious of this very bad habit. Most of the time, it went unnoticed. Yet, one day 2 girls came to my desk and asked to move to new seats in the room because the young man’s habit was embarrassing them. I complied.



Every day, the bell would ring and the guy would have great difficulty loading his books into his book bags. Every day, I would help him, life his heavy literature book, because he was unable to do this with one hand. I would help him put his book bag on his back and wait patiently for him to slowly walk to the door. Then I would lock my room and go to lunch.



Unfortunately, every other week, I had lunch duty. Our school had 2500 students and was the square footage of 3 acres. I had to zigzag through the halls crowded with students to race to the cafeteria where I had duty. It was at the complete opposite end of the building. There, after a 5-minute class change, teachers were supposed to shut the doors to the cafeteria and guard the door. Needless-to-say, when my student “M” was in my class, my helping him made me late to duty at least once or twice a week.



One particular week, the witch was supervising the teachers on duty and the cafeteria.

I was late and could not get to the door in time to close it. As I was running to the door to the cafeteria, (we had 8 doors in an octagon-shaped cafeteria), Mrs. Witch shut the door in my face at the tardy bell!

Without asking why I was late, she opened the door and hatefully said, “What in the world would our school be like if all teachers were like you?” I just smiled, but was very hurt inside. Understanding diversity would have been a good point for the Witch to learn. Common Sense would have been for her to ask why I was late.