The panel has spoken

We had "panel" today at my school and I served. There were three teachers, and all the students who didn't get credit for 3 classes last term had to show up in front of us and plead their cases why they should get a 2nd chance instead of being booted to adult school (a permanent situation after 4 or more years in high school and systematic failure) or GED prep (a term-long elective class, after which they can return to the school if they got credit).

Let's just say, I make Simon Cowell look nice. My bullshit detector is sensitive and very activated and I use it well. The best moment was the principal busting a kid for lying by calling the teacher in front of the father, after the principal had overriden last term's panel saying the kid should go to GED. He was plenty pissed at the lying kid, but serves him right for overriding teachers.

This morning my day started with, "Juan, why aren't you in class?" "I don't have a 1st period." "Really? So if I go check your schedule I will see no 1st period?" "Yeah."

So, of course, I checked his schedule and was back there within a minute. "Come. Now." I escorted him personally to the vice-principal for lying to me.

Then, after he showed up for my class later (which I would have skipped if I were him - but he wasn't even hostile to me), he met me in panels - our first kid. And he said his classes are too hard. "Really?" I think I even peered over my glasses. "And it doesn't have anything to do with you skipping those classes and then lying about it?" Let's just say, I was on a roll after that. "REally?" I would say skeptically to so many kids. "Then why does your record show this? Why do your teachers say this? Would you like to change your story now?"

Let's see how long my truck lasts without being vandalized.

The other two teachers and I agreed on every decision (I think we made about 60 today), and they let me take the lead. Rendering verdicts, I like it. And no, I didn't send all kids away, lots got second chances including some I'm really proud of (including a 17-year-old taking primary responsibility for his newborn son and a girl who just entered drug rehab), but only the ones we think deserve it. Which, in all honesty, with the exception of Juan (who's only been with me for a week), was all my students. I was so proud of Jose, who practiced the speech I prepped him, and he was oh, so convincing. And Sabdy, who was properly contrite, after I yelled at her for getting a B in my class and being one of my best students and failing all her other classes. I like my kids and get protective of them, though we're booting two at tomorrow's panel.

I like this voting off the island thing. I think we need a whole elaborate ceremony with torches being extinguished and everything.

Yeah, I'm finding it way too fun. But I have to get my kicks somewhere, and I've taught too many years with no voice in consequences. Now, I decide the consequences when the kids have effed up, and I like it. I get to hone the school down to the kids who really want to be there and do their work.

I'll probably volunteer for panel every time until the end of the year - unless the principal vetoes.

One of the other teachers, I talked to her about that today. "Why has no administrator set foot in my classroom? Do they really not give a shit what's going on?" "No," she said, "They see, as we all do, that you are competent and you really know what you're doing, so they trust you. He hasn't done his job for the past 10 years and now he's getting a hard time from the district office, so he's worried about that and knows you're doing what you're supposed to."

So, that makes me feel a little better. But I still think it's a really crappy school for teachers - no support at all, total isolation, etc.

I will have to post some of the comments teachers wrote about their students for the panel consideration. One actually wrote "P.O.S." next to a kid's name.

I thought he meant "Part of Speech" and I was like, "Hello? He's a noun!" Then I realized - he just called that kid a piece of shit. And that, blog friends, is messed up. No kid is a piece of shit. They can be jerks and flaming assholes and aggravating as hell and frustrating and referral-worthy and obnoxious and druggies and all sorts of bad things - but those are all temporary states, and I would never write that about any of my kids for the people making serious decisions. In fact, I think we gave that kid a 2nd chance - and my reasoning was just to piss off that asshole teacher.

Ah, it was a powerful day in ME-landia. Maybe they should send me to Cote d'Ivoire to halt hostilities. My Liberian friends say I should be put in charge of the war in Iraq and everything would be handled before the weekend.