  We're now through about one and a half weeks of summer school, and man, what a disaster it's been. We only have four kids, three who've actually been in school, and half of them are in full-on crisis mode. Plus, depending on the positioning of the moon and the stars over Venus, they may or may not all hate each other. Here's a summary of my week: Daniel, 12, hasn't made it to school yet. He was admitted to the psychiatric wing of the local hospital for physical agression over summer break and has been there for about three weeks. Last I heard, he'll be discharged tomorrow and back at school on Thursday. Before break he was on at-home suspension for shoving the principal into a wall (twice) hard enough that she thought her nose was broken.
He'd also developed a habit of going AWOL when he got upset or in trouble. On the worst day, he ran out of the building and half a mile down the road before he stopped. I know that's how far it was because I'm the poor fool who had to go after him, and I clocked it later out of curiousity. Ideally, he should come out of the hospital in a better frame of mind, but somehow I don't think that's necessarily going to be the case. Devin, 13, is just a walking disaster. He spent half the day in the help center today (a group of rooms where the kids go when they're so disruptive that they can't be in class).
He punched three ceiling tiles out and ripped them apart. He tore up the jersey he had been wearing in gym class. And best yet, he pulled a cigarette lighter out of his pocket, flicked it on, knelt down next to a spot where the carpet was pulling up, and threatened to "burn this fucker to the ground! " That's about where he got put into a physical restraint. I could spend a whole entry on Devin, and probably will at some point, but for now I'll just say that he's in a crisis state.
Everything he seemed to be learning about dealing with his emotions has flown out the window. He's screaming, yelling, swearing, throwing chairs, trying to leave the building, among other things. His counselour has a meeting with his mom tomorrow. Thomas, 11, is fine as long as no one looks at him, touches him, or talks to him. On the bus ride home yesterday a couple of older kids started making fun of him and he flipped out. He started throwing around racial slurs, he shoved a couple kids, he told everyone he was bringing a knife or a gun on the bus the next day and taking care of them, he hit the bus aide when she tried to intervene. The bus company's security company met the bus and escorted Thomas home. And go figure, the bus company is now refusing to transport him!
His counselour has a meeting with his mom tomorrow, too. Thank God for Dominik, 11. He has his problems, but they usually pass quickly. Last Tuesday he was sure we were all racist ("You're only taking points from the black boys and none from the white boy! "), but by Wednesday he'd forgotten. Of course, I also gave him a pretty good lecture about throwing around accuasations like that. Usually he doesn't handle name-calling or teasing very well which is a problem with Devin the way he is lately, but Dom has done pretty well so far this summer.
He finds out this week that he's going to a new program in September though so we'll see how that goes over. I can't decide if he'll be excited or furious. The good news is, Dominik will be the only kid we have tomorrow. Daniel will be in the hospital most of the day, and Devin and Thomas are at home until their parents come in to work out some kind of plan to deal with what's going on with them.
The bad news is, they'll ALL be back on Thursday. The next five weeks can NOT go fast enough. Now playing: American Fast Food , Randy Stonehill Now reading: Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence by Paul Feig (creator of the totally awesome Freaks and Geeks ) and Apostles of Rock: The Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music by Jay R. Howard and John M. Streck 
