Craziest day at work in years. . .

More than three years ago, back when my husband and I embarked on this foster parenting adventure, it was in part due to my being inspired by my professional work. I have been working with kids, mostly teens, from the roughest of backgrounds since 2004.

Yesterday was the craziest day I have had in years. I generally spend my Mondays at a school with an enrollment of about 50 with approximately 20-30 students who show up on any given day. The students have all been expelled from inner city public schools. The school is meant to educate students with pretty severe behavior problems. Many of the students also have cognitive limitations.

Unfortunately, our normal building went through a lot during Hurricane Irene and we are in a rental space for now. Our normal building is state of the art. In addition to regular classrooms, we have a gym, counseling offices, a weight room, a wood shop room, culinary arts kitchen and fully stocked art room. Where we are now, we have nothing but 8 rooms. The kids know how to jimmy open the doors and they are bored. In addition, we have a new administration for the fourth time in five years. Though the new administration looks promising, we lack the resources that we normally have.

All of this resulted in complete mayhem yesterday. By nine in the morning the police were called. The administration needed them to help prevent a gang fight. While the police presence successfully prevented violence it made for a very rough start for the day. The students all watched from the windows (despite constant staff attempts to redirect) as the police engaged the students who were about to fight in the parking lot. When the police walked through the school, the kids cursed at them. Fortunately, the officers were wise enough to stay stone faced as the kids lashed out.

In two separate incidents, two large windows were smashed. Later in the day, another student decided to kick a door off the hinges. Another student broke the lock in the office that the counselors are using. At lunch, kids threw pieces of bananas at the windows and at each other. No matter what the staff did (and in some cases, didn't do), the kids kept on their destructive paths. One teacher completely lost his temper and shoved a student when he thought the student was going to take his belongings. The student shoved back and it turned into a shoving match. It was nuts.

I managed to get in a couple of good sessions with some kids that were new to me. I also managed to stop the shoving match between the student and teacher (I also wrote it up for the administration) and as the student said, prevented him from punching the teacher and therefore prevented him from leaving in handcuffs.

I have been so passionate about working with kids who have been deemed beyond help for so long but I am finding that passion fading. In the last few months, two of our recent students were arrested for murder. I used to believe that if I could just reach a few it would be enough. I am questioning that these days and I am not looking forward to going back next Monday.