The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

In the meantime, McDuff has his rickety little wheels turning. I can only imagine his thoughts.

---Oh, crap. We've screwed up with the same insanely demanding parent. Damn her and her expectations.

---Wow. Cat's out of the bag. We have no idea what we are doing.

---Oops. Now everyone knows that one of our teachers has a deeply troubled, out of control kid, and what exactly does that say about her talent for handling the special needs kids she is supposed to be expertly teaching?

---Yikes. The po-lice. She wants to call the po-lice. Now they are going to want to go digging through my messy pile of files and they are going to find I am just a suit and my degrees were obtained online from Joe's College and Drive-thru Degree Mill. My cover is blown.

And after 5 or 6 emails back and forth with McDuff, most of which marked by a not-so-thinly-veiled threat to go to the police and "other authorities" because it is apparent to me that he is woefully underprepared to manage this situation competently, and he is egregiously ill-equipped from an emotional maturity or a skills and experience standpoint to handle it deftly, much less gradefully, and further, his enthusiasm for taking the matter seriously is underwhelming at best, all of a sudden he has what I am sure he thinks is a stroke of sheer genius.

All of a sudden he invites me, and Hil, natch, to participate in some kumbaya, touchy-feely dispute resolution pow-wow and sit around the camp fire smoking a peace pipe so that no one's feelings are hurt and everyone goes home friends.

My ass.

This is how sociopaths are made. Make the kid feel all warm and fuzzy with no remorse or consequences when they've done something heinous.

I think, in these situations, a little shame and humiliations are a good thing. No one has to be trotted off to the pokey in cuffs, but they should feel the natural consequences of doing something hateful. You lose a friend's trust, and maybe their friendship. You are embarassed that people know what you did. Your parents are disappointed. You get a detention and don't get to sit in Art class with the other kids who are making neat-o Aztec masks.

And oh, the best part is, the school's liaison at the police station participates, too! How convenient!

So naturally, I am skeptical. If police involvement were part of the routine when these things happen at school, why wasn't this nifty little process mentioned a week ago? I think McDuff cooked it up and pulled it right out of his sizeable ass and thinks I will be none the wiser.

McDuff seems to have forgotten that I am not that easy a customer. I want to lash out at him indescriminantly.

But I don't.

I'd rather back him into a corner and scratch his eyes out later.

I pretend to play along. I write:

Seems reasonable. I'd like to learn more about the process before committing to it. Can you direct me to the place on the website where I can read more about how this process is used?"

He writes back hours later. He clearly was pacing the floor wondering how to respond. He tells me it is something he instituted back in the High School (before you were demoted to the Hell that is Middle School?) He can't lay his hands on his literature (literature...there is no way he's published...he's a blithering idiot!) but here is a link you can review.

I click on it. It is a psychology journal on the process he is suggesting, wiht graphs and charts and studies on how it has been used to re-integarate hardened criminals into societies that loathe them.

I write back, "Thanks. But what I am looking for is how the District has been using this. I am skeptical, to be honest, that this is just one more tactic to handle this creatively to meet some agenda. I think you will understand that I come by my skepticism honestly. When I first mentioned involving the police, why wasn't this practice involving the police brought to my attention?

Where is this in the District's policy and procedure, and what confidence can I have that this is not the first time this is being done and has no hope of being successful? I am inclined to handle this independently."

Let the tap dancing begin.