03.20.07
Remember opening boxes before school?
Me, either. But, apparently one of my fourth graders was opening boxes before he came to school this morning.
That’s why he had a knife on him.
Apparently.
Why he was showing it to classmates in the lunch line, I have no idea (since, you know, he accidentally stuck it in his pocket after opening that box, this morning, and didn’t mean to bring it to school). Luckily, the girl next to him in line had the sense to come tell me, and I had the sense to tell a real teacher (having no idea what the specific policy for “a kid in the cafeteria has a knife” is for my school). I was able to prevent mass hysteria by keeping the same girl from telling the rest of the cafeteria, and the other teacher was able to get the pocketknife (one of the foldable kinds with a 2″ blade) from him without a problem.
I remember when I decided to be a teacher. I got a lot of reactions from people when they heard the news, most commonly comments like, “But you’re so smart!” and “Oh, you’ll change your mind with your first paycheck, har har!” There were a few people, though, that remarked, “Well, I hope you don’t plan to teach high school, because those kids bring weapons to school - you’ll get shot or stabbed.”
Guess what! Elementary kids do it, too.
*sigh*
Remarkably, I didn’t really freak out. It helped that it (1) wasn’t really a threatening situation and (2) was caught pretty quickly. My biggest reaction was, “Poor Kevin*, I wish I knew what was going on with him…” You see, I only spend four hours a week in the classroom, and was actually getting ready to leave at the start of the knife incident. This kid has obvious issues (he’s mopey, depressed, negative - has apparently made comments about hurting himself), but I don’t know the specifics. There hasn’t been time to discuss it with my teacher.
There’s lots of reasons why it could have happened… to get attention is the most likely one I can think of… still, I can’t help but wonder how common the issue of weapons/depression/suicidal thoughts is in schools - particularly elementary schools. And, what’s the best way to handle it? (As an individual teacher, an entire school, and/or a community…)
*Kevin is, obviously, not his real name.