The Pervert and the Cutter

I think it must have been the momentum of the season or the winding down of final exam week or perhaps something else.  My trusty walkie-talkie never stopped chirping, the meetings were back-to-back (why are we forced to spend so much time in meetings?), and the students were restless. 

During one of my meetings, I hear a radio call from the main office about a fight in one of the rooms for which I’m responsible.  The police pick up the call – thankfully – because I was unable to go at that time.  Shortly thereafter, I had to go to cafeteria duty and was unable to follow up on the situation.  I was called to the nurse’s office – while monitoring the cafeteria.  One of my students – a 14 year old girl – was found sobbing in the hallway, cutting herself on the wrist.  At that very moment I’m called to the police office, where I’m told that one of my students has assaulted – choked, to be exact – a female student.

The cutter – a girl I’ve never met or encountered before – is a freshman of 14.  I have no idea what’s wrong or why she is upset or why she’s cutting herself.  Mercifully, our counselor takes over and mediates the situation, talks to the mother and has the nurse examine her wounds.  What makes a 14 year old girl want to mutilate herself?  If I understood that, I guess I’d be able to solve a lot of problems.  But I don’t…

The choker – who I have met, but never in such a capacity – had dropped his cell phone on the floor in a classroom, but wasn’t aware of this.  A female student picks it up and not knowing who it belonged to, she looked at the contents of the phone, which included a lot of bikini-type photos of girls – the kind one might download from the Internet.  Nothing terribly risqué, but I guess enough to offend a teenage girl.  Being an honest girl, she takes the phone to the teacher… But being an opinionated girl, she states boldy and loudly “Miss, a PERVERT lost his phone!”  This quiet boy, mild-mannered boy, a boy who is a good student, a quiet student, goes into a rage and begins choking the girl.  I don’t think it had anything to do with her picking up his phone.  He was angry that someone considered him to be a pervert.  He was really angry.  I wish I understood what went on in a 17 year old boy’s mind.  I should be able to, being as at some point I was one… but I can’t relate to what makes one want to choke a fellow classmate.  What kind of switch flipped in his head?

To end the lovely week, I heard that the student whose mother was brutally murdered has a warrant out for his arrest.

Merry Christmas.  It’s time for a break.