Just when we least expect it, something comes along to wake us up! Between first and second period yesterday, one of my students walked in and said, “There’s a fight in the hall,” as if this were a common occurrence.
I maneuvered my way through the students in the large commons area until I found three male teachers trying to break up two angry, very angry girls, who were fighting. Since I came up from behind, I grabbed the smaller girl who had her back to me and moved her away.
She didn’t top five feet and probably only weighed 90 pounds on a good day, but that child was angry and STRONG, very strong! While I tried desperately to hold on to her, she drug my very large body all over the hall and finally got away and picked up a chair to throw.
I grabbed her again and pushed her inside an empty classroom where she did her best to try to escape as I closed the door and blocked her passage. She kept trying to get out to go after the other girl – even when administrators and the campus police officer arrived.
Out of Control! The girl was out of control!
In all of my 50+ years, I have never been as out of control as this young girl was. How does someone so young, probably 13 or 14 years old, become so angry? Why does someone so young become so angry?
I don’t know what happened to the young lady. In fact, I don’t even know her name. I suppose she has been suspended for a few days, probably a few more days than the other girl since she had to be restrained and refused to stop fighting.
After the fight, I walked back inside my classroom and then it hit me that the fight was the first fight I had helped to break up in almost a decade. Momentarily, I remembered all of those days at a different school when I had to break up fights every week. Once after a particularly violent girl fight, I had promised myself that I would never try to break up two girls again.
I forgot that promise yesterday, but I survived.
As long as I stick to breaking up fights between girls half my size, maybe I’ll be just fine.
