May 25, 2007

Panic! In the Classroom!

One of my students had a breakdown during class today because she didn't have her project. She's been gone a lot lately because of the activities she's in, but she doesn't always keep up on her assignments--even when she's there. Her mom is constantly trying to keep her on top of things.

So anyway, as I busy with other students, and everyone was working independently, I didn't notice the girl sitting alone by the door all hunched over, hiding the fact she was crying. I didn't know what was wrong with her when I first approached, but when I bent down, I found her sobbing, and drying to dry her tears with one of those stretchy nylon book covers, which kept getting snagged on her braces. (Hard not to laugh.) Yep, she was a disaster.

I did not have any sympathy for her but asked her if she needed to call her mother (to calm her down) and if her mother could maybe bring any of her project to school. Apparently she had called her mother, who could not miss anymore time from work, and as it turns out, her project was not completed anyway. So, I sent the girl to the restroom with a friend (I hate to admit I was more worried than usual that this student might hurt herself), but then she ended up getting a severe nosebleed and going to the nurse's office. She was such a wreck that she ended up going home. By the end of the day her project appeared on my desk, so I guess her mother ended up taking time off to deal with her daughter's drama after all.

You know what was amusing about all of this? While the distraught girl was off sitting alone having a breakdown because she thought she might fail--and she admitted she brought this on herself--her friends were ignoring her drama. Not kidding. They were at their desks, involved in their own last minutes project plans, and had no sympathy for her either. Those are good friend, aye?

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