Part of me doesn’t think I will believe some of this years from now. Part of me can’t imagine all of this is real. Yet, it happened. It is real. Life is hard for lots of people. Sin is prevalent. Our world needs a Savior… Here are some of the things I do not think I will want to remember, but will forever be changed by knowing… This is only what I know 9 weeks in. I can’t imagine what another 9 weeks will bring. Nor do I want to.

A student has a mother show up at a meeting 1st semester and say to him in front of a teacher, “Where have you been the last 2 weeks?” What? You’re his mother and you haven’t done anything to find him or search for him for two weeks.

A student is absent several days in a row. I have no idea why. Find out later it is because CPS has been called. She is not living at home. She was having sex with her 4th grade brother. They share a room with their 1st grade twin siblings… please no, Lord. Please.

This same student is writing her name and a male’s name all over her desk. When asked who he is she responds, “He’s my ex. When he gets out of jail I am going to give him another chance.”

A student writes pornographic notebook entries about another student. Several about others. One about his dad being a crackhead and how much he hates him.  I read them to decipher whose handwriting it is, but try my hardest to only skim them.

A student steals from the school and is suspended for 5 days. Less than a week after coming back she has stolen from another student and is suspended again.

Another student repeatedly steals petty, small objects from my desk and other students. Stealing is stealing is stealing.

I confiscate a cell phone from a student who is texting in class. I deal with the situation there and am about to give the phone back to the original owner when I discover lots of DIRTY, X-rated messages. Yes, folks, I now know ‘sexting’ is alive and real.

Mom comes to collect said cell phone. I mention there are lots of ‘interesting’ text messages. She just hands the cell back to her daughter and is upset not over the text messages, but that I went through the text messages.

A student complains her throat hurts and goes to the nurse. She is later picked up by mom to be taken to get x-rays. Mom had hit her so hard she was having trouble breathing. Thankfully, everything checked out fine.

A student creates a website about another one of my students. www.(insertname)isfat.com We make her delete the site.

A homebound, bullying student is creating videos and posting them on youtube. He is badmouthing his classmates and posting them, mentioning them by name, calling them ugly, using obscene language.

My students write an obscene explicit command on a post-it and post it to the library specialists back. Of course, she walks around like this for a while.

A student I have for reading is suddenly expelled when it is discovered she is hiding knives in the girls’ locker room. She wants to hurt another student.

A fight is broken up in my room as two students seem angry enough to kill each other. I am punched in the face in the process.

One of my students calls another one a choice word. The brother of the student called this choice word decides he has had enough and a fight begins.

CPS is called on a student whose mother comes to pick him up. He is smacked across the face and thoroughly cursed at when she arrives, having to leave her job because he was in trouble.