Monday

R-1 is not here. His attendance has been perfect for weeks. I see his soon to be baby's mama. I ask where is he? She says he must be home sleeping. She looks sheepish. But she is not his mama.

M is on the run. The ISP has a warrant. He will get locked up. Maybe placed somewhere out of his home.

We have just finished a reading from the journal of Alvar Nunez de Cabeza de Vaca about his encounters with the indigenous. How he and his handful of men survived years in a savage strange land. We watched the Roger Corman film Cabeza de Vaca. He survives captivity to become a wandering healer among the indigenous. Finally he finds a party of Conquistadors. He questions his own religion. His men boast of fantastic cities. Cities of gold. He is silent. Francisco Corornado soon sets out to find the cities. There are 7. He takes with him The Requerimiento. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requerimiento. We read The Requerimiento. I deconstruct and break down the vocab. They must write a letter in response to the document.

E steals a black sharpie from A who is helping him write his letter. He asks for her apple. She gives it to him. He takes her orange too. She finds the apple smashed in the hallway. There is fresh graffiti on the wall outside the bathroom and inside.
I hear this. I say to A that we must confront him. She is hesitant. We have too. Yes he took the sharpie. No he did not do the graffiti. I say he can't return until he replaces the sharpie and cleans the walls. I call his mother. Her son does not do graffiti. We can't prove it. Never mind he stole the sharpie. He smashed the apple because it had a hole in it. None of this was her mijo's fault.
She is not concerned with his disrespectful behavior. Only that we cannot prove he wrote 13k on the walls. But he will return tommorow with the black sharpie and he will clean the walls even though he did not do it.

Sorting Out The Pieces

Aftermath: The consequences or aftereffects of an event. Esp when unpleasant.

N shows up Tuesday as if nothing had happened. Gone the day after. Gone Monday. I say we must wait until we talk with the PO. He insists that it is cool. Everything is cool. What's the big deal? I bring up his Myspace site. He is stunned. His facade is cool. A big misunderstanding. He will delete his Myspace. He is here. He just wants to go to school. It wasn't his fault. Wrong place. Wrong time. For an instant he forces himself to cry. But he can't sustain it. I had fallen for it once before. It was a calculated act. On cue.

I know it is not his fault. He did not calculate his life. I know well and good that he is a victim of his own circumstance. His fucked up family. His mother. His adolescent brain. Still there are consequences and reprecussions. Go home till we sort this thing out.

At noon the PO arrives. There is a warrant for N. He has not been home since that day. They know he is at home now. They go to get him. For the greater good he cannot come back. I wonder what will happen.

I am sick all week. A bad cold. I am losing my voice. It hurts to talk. I have to talk.

M returned this week after a court hearing which put him on ISP. Now he has a team of 3 POs. Any wrong move gives him 24 hours in lock-up. He is not happy. There will also be family therapy in the home. Keeping him at the Road will be hard. Earlier in the week I had a dream that 3 of his younger brothers were here to sign up for school. I was told I had to take them. I walked into the room and there they were around a table. The same green eyes as his. Glowing from their hood covered heads. They smiled. They had very sharp teeth.

She has a running theme lately. Men being men. Men showing boys how to be men. Boys with emeshed mommies. Let the men step in. Solve it like men. Months ago in the NYTs I read about teenage boy elephants run amuck on binges of pure malice and destruction. Their daddies were gone or dead. No men. Only boys. Lost without men. Emeshed to their mommies.N,E,B,M. They are all teenage boy elephants.

She is part of the case management now. She oversees the hard work. The therapy part. Cuts through the dance. While she herself is figuring out the dance. She is amazed at the complexities of the development of teenage brains. She reminds us of this. Draws our attentions to this. She pulls no punches. She sorts out the pieces.

Drama With The Sur Treces

Out of the light and back into the tunnels. The drama is constant. N has drawn the drama to us through his Myspace. Now the Myspace is a place to bang and represent. Apparently it is common. N has sent taunts and braggadocio to girl who is down with the Surenos. The big girl comes to the school with a car full of 13s. School is just letting out. She steps to N waving her finger in his face. He is mute. The adults intervene. She leaves but not before her homies throw their signs and disrespect the West. The West hates the South. It has always been like that. They recongregate across the street. Groups converge. Words are exchanged. N gets smacked. Apparently the West does not stand by him. They stand only for the West.

N does not go home. Now he is on the run. The school is abuzz with the aftermath of the drama. The PO says there will be a warrant. I don't know what will happen. N is back on the road with no light.

Sometimes There is a Light

Sometimes there is a light at the Crossroads...but there is always another tunnel. The little light keeps us on the road.

Last week the whole school had a day for parent conferences. There were a lot of Parents. More than I have ever seen. The Crossroads had 100% attendance. 4 conferences were really therapy sessions. 3 of the 4 became us as the facilitator between the young masters and the parents. The other one was getting a parent to help reel in a wayward young master. All of the other conferences were feel good feasts of celebration and praise.

Friday and today my attendance was 100%.

Today I met with K and his father and a translator. K has let his anger get the better of himself lately. The father wonders if perhaps we could arrange through the PO to have his son locked up for just a day or 2. I say that is not possible. We cannot be the ones to have his son locked up. He says maybe he should move his son to a different school to get away from his bad friends. I tell the father is son is doing better than he has ever done anyplace else. I say we like his son very much. His son has missed only one day of school since we started. He used to miss a lot of school. The problem is not his friends at school. The problem is his son's anger. He says he will talk to his son. He thanks me for caring about his son. All of this is through the translator. K sits quiet and respectful. Eyes downcast. Only a word or 2 to his father in Hmong. At first I feel like I am betraying him to his father. But I see his father knows these things. And I see that K knows these things are true. I see that he knows my intentions. He is not mad at me. He hold no grudge.

A has returned with all his missing assignments. At the conference he was slunk low in his chair. Hood up over his face. Sullen and resentful. His foster father scolded him. Asks me if I can arrange to have him locked up. Again I say that is not my job. He has committed no crime other than recalcitrance. The next day A shows up with his missing homework. Today he has more and is working hard to complete his tasks. He has a lot of work to do. But now there is something to work with.

On Friday the father of R-2 comes to his appointment with a family therapist. He brings his other son and his other son's 4 year-old daughter. I am amazed more than I have been in a long time. Today the mother of R-2 comes to his IEP meeting. She came on the bus. Later R-2 comes with her to my office. Her transfer has expired. Can he give her his student bus card? I give her 2 dollars. She says she will pay me back. I say not to worry. She has other things to worry about.

Bumps on the Road

Mid-October. The easy days of fall have given way to forboding. Winter is coming. Some things will hold together. Some will fall apart.The shit will show.There was a noticeable tension at the Crossroads today.

M is hostile. Belligerent. Came to school Friday and left with others to smoke a blunt.He was sent home when he tried to come back. On Monday he was back but refused to participate in the morning routine. I sent him out. We met with his mother the next morning. She is trying. I said he must have counseling. He is refusing. After his mother left he was hostile and sullen. He left.

L could not sit still. He was up and about interrupting and inappropriate. Like last spring. I told him to leave. He left then burst back in to get a cigarette from one of the homies. He must come back with his father.

E is back to his old tricks. Self-rightous anger and silence. He is easily offended.

N is back from lock-up. He is not doing well at home. He is not going home. I can tell because he has worn the same clothes 3 days in a row. He is mad at his mother.

B is done for good. We had one last meeting with mother, the PO, and the Therapist. Miss 2 days and we are done. Start therapy. Right after this meeting. He was not happy. He felt set-up. But this is what we agreed in August and now he must. He does not return the next day. Or the next. Now he is done.

We will force a crisis. This is old behavior. It must change. There is hard work to do. We will not continue like this for the year. Do the work. Address the issues or go some place else.

A Week of Birds, Bloods and Crips.

The whole school spent a week studying birds. Just a general overview. All crammed into 1 week. The young Masters all went along with the program for the most part. They did their tasks. They did some research. They wrote 2 papers. We all went on a day long road trip to look for eagles. We saw 1. They were not impressed. They were more impressed with the open garage doors in a neighborhood in a small town. We stumbled through the neighborhood looking for a park where we could have our lunch. They were shocked and amazed that people would leave their garage doors open. It was a foreign land.

Back at school I noticed that K had developed a particular fascination with Cardinals. He said he admired the fact that they were territorial. And that they were red. He said he had watched one at his mother's bird feeder. He claimed that it had fought and chased off 2 larger Blue Jays. Claimed the feeder for his own. His bird project poster featured among other things Cardinals killing Blue Jays. I also noticed the same theme in the poster that R-1 and R-3 had created. A Cardinal had decapitated a Blue Jay. It was Bloods and Crips. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bloods. The Bloods were triumphant.

The Father

R-2 was not here today. There was a message from his mother saying her tran had gone out. She said he will be every day from now on. She makes excuses. She makes promises. I have heard this before. RL calls his PO. He says he will visit the home.

It is a little after noon. R-2's father is in my office. He is sweating. He is covered in oil and grime. He works in a steel factory. I reach to shake his hand. He says he is dirty. I shake his hand anyway. He says he's here to check on R-2. I say he is not here. He is worried about his son. He is just out of prison. He has an ankle bracelet. He is trying to do right. He is worried about the son living with the mother. There are drugs. There is no money. He had to move out. It was too crazy. He does not want to go back to prison. Now he is living with another son. He wants to get R-2 out of the house. The house with no electricity and a mother on meth. He is saving his money to save his son. He does not want his past to be his future.

Mid-Quarter

Now we are at mid-quarter:
N is still in JDC. Should come back next week.

B is done. I cut him. His PO will violate.We will only take him back after a meeting with his mother and his PO. They must agree to counseling of a formal sort. I am doubtful.

R-2 did not show up. I am getting worried about his attendance. He could have gotten his .5s if he had shown today. Now he gets smacked with .25s and needs to step up. I fear trouble on the home front. His mother is useless.

B-2 is out sick with the flu. He will get .25s. Those 2 days he took being lazy will cost him now. At least his parents are calling.

R-3 is doing well. Here every day. Earned all .5s

K has done great this far. Sort of. He told another teacher on Thurs that he was "bout to get stole on" if he didn't get out his face. I sat him down the next morning and said he needed to get this straight. I have seen him in this state before. He always justifies his rage. This time he is contrite. His head is down and he says little. He apologizes to E and shakes his hand. Light years from what he would have done last year. He earns all his credit. He has missed 0 days.

R-1 is conspicuous by his absence. I call his father's cell. He tells me in broken English that R-1 is on his way. He had to round up money for gas. He should arrive any minute. He does. He is over on his attendance. His behavior and attention to detail on his work are above and beyond. I give him all his credit and warn him that his PO is watching. I think he has rank in the Asian Bloods. He is quiet and aware. I know he is bangin on the streets. He is bangin in his head. He is in deep. I want to see him here in June.

A has been here every day. He has become lazy and whiney. His thinking process disturbs me. He is missing assignments. He swears he left them at home. He swears he will bring them Monday. I don't believe him. The low-grade noncompliance is showing. I give him .25s for now. He must bring the missing assignments. We will see.

A-2 has earned all his credit. He is thriving. He is still a troubled boy. Something not right at home.

E has missing assignments. He hates to write. He is doing better than before. But I expect more. We have a long way to go. I give him .25s in Language Arts. .5s for the others.

L is hyper and happy. He is over by a day but I give him full credit. He is doing better than he ever has. Still I am troubled. I know he will not be here Monday.

M is new. I started him yesterday. We have known his family a long time. I have taught his brothers R and D. They are a troubled family. He has a black eye and an arm heavily bandaged. Slice by a knife. Just yesterday. A fight in a park. He is on probation for felony burglary. He has no credits. He has an IEP. I know his mother from years past. She just wants to fill out the paper work. He will be a piece of work.