"Let's Start a Petition"

I liked this one student -- he complimented me on my name. Whereas most students would pronounce my name wrong and think nothing of it, he commended me for my name.

The student's name was Vernon, I believe. He was a calm kid, a rarity at Hawthorne High School, a rarity all the more for most of the students on the campus, who were out of control in large part because of the stupid things that that dominated the policies of theh school district.


Discipline was never a high priority at that school. I have written at length in the past about the lax discipline which dominated Hawthorne High School, to the degree that students would yell at the deans, and they would do nothing about it. Some security staff were too chummy with the kids, hanging out with them during lunch time, when a proper distance and reserve was called for.


Anyway, Vernon was a class act, a student who was ready to get down to business when class started. I first met him when I was covering a US History class for a teacher who  had gotten suddenly ill.

I had had such a terrible experience at the school in months past, but with that class, with students like Vernon, I found a reason to smile again. Also, it helped that as a substitute working just day-to-day, I did not have to stress about test scores and student behavior from day to day. I did not have to bring yesterday's drama into the next day, since for all intensive purposes I might not be there the next day.

I could have fun with those students. I did not worry if they did not complete their work, just as long as they did not prevent others from getting their work done.

During the third day, my last covering that class, I brought out my clarinet and starting playing some of the songs that I had collected over the years. I used to play in band when I was  in high school. Since then, I would  take out my clarinet and play  once in a while. I had even collected some songs by the Beach Boys, which was apropos for that day since those band members went to Hawthorne High School years ago.

At the end of the period, Vernon declared: "We have to start a petition. Let's fire that other teacher and hire Mr. Schaper."

I smiled, glad that I was receiving a much warmer reception than from the previous classes that I had taught there. Then again, I kept my enthusiasm in check. I did not want a retread of the terrible misunderandating which prompted a teacher at another teacher, who erroneously fearing that I was trying to take her job away had me written up and dismissed unceremomiously from campus a week later.

Strangely enough, I had received the nasty email from that terrified teacher that same week, the first day that I took over that US History class.

What a strange turn of events. I was blessed indeed that wherever I went, students welcomed me and wanted me to stay as long as possible.

It would be months before I saw Vernon again. It was May, and the morning had not started very well. The secretary had  threatened to call security on me because for the first time I refused to put up with her abuse. She was the quintessential office bully, an older woman who had gotten so tired of the harassment from staff, students, and parents, that she then felt entitled in turn to fire back at everyone. At first, I was a little shaken up when she hollered across the front of the school that she would call security on me for not signing a sheet which I very well could have signed at the end of the day.

The assistant principal came to my rescue when the secretary starting bawling to him about my "obstinacy" He calmly asked me, "Is everything all right, Mr. Schaper?" I signed in for the day, the secretary made a complete fool of herself.

When I finally got settled in the English class, I noticed that Vernon was going to be in the class, along with many of the other students whom I had met in the US History class earlier that year. We had a really good time. The students I were laughing about a lot of things. I told them about the cake that I had bought for one dollar at the supermarket. "I loved that cake," I started telling them. I think I was talking about the cake because it tied in with the grammar lesson that the students were working on that day. Well, the cake became a dominant topic of conversation for the rest of the period. Still, the students got a lot of work done that day.

First Vernon commented, "Man, it's much quieter today than usual. And everyone is working!"

Of course, everyone was laughing it up about "the cake". Also, some of the kids were teasing another kid, a bespectacled, more bookish type.  But no one got their feelings hurt in the process.

Then Vernon declared, "Man we have got to start a petition. We have got to get you hired here!"

I was so glad to hear that again. I do not know if students realize that teachers do not forget the kind things that they say. Teachers need all the encouragement that they can get, and more often than not they deal with insults, injuries, and complaints.

Thanks a lot, Vernon. I think that we should start a petition, one where more students like you are allowed to enroll and engaged teachers and staff alike to get more teachers hired with the drama and trauma that has escalated exponentially in today's public schools.