Last Day Before Winter Break

Mixed Feelings

“There is most likely to be a school shooting and bomb threats for every school in the USA.”

This was the beginning of an email from the superintendent about a post going around on various social media sites. That sentence was followed by reassurance that we would be safe, and that there would be increased vigilance and increased police presence as well.

The rumors say this will happen Dec. 17th — tomorrow, the last day before winter break. It will be difficult enough to keep students focused on their schoolwork on this day anyway. Now there is going to be another distraction.

As we left the building today, we teachers wondered how many students may stay home tomorrow — either because they were concerned or because they would use this as a convenient excuse to miss school.

This school year has probably been the most challenging of my career. Students are always somewhat unmotivated and mischievous. Now, however, they are wrecking school rest rooms because of a TikTok challenge, threaten administrators, and rather keep staring at their phones instead of trying to pass a class.

Attendance is terrible. Students stay home for weeks for “family issues” or just go on vacation without bothering to even submit the paperwork. One student just came back from a vacation in Florida right before finals. He didn’t seem to care much.

All those students who are quarantined, have Covid-19, family issues, mental issues, are just not feeling well, or are absent for whatever reason deserve to make up their work — even if they did nothing for weeks. That is the new policy. Catching them up is almost another full-time job, and I am exhausted.

Absenteeism among faculty is the worst I have seen as well. I get the perfect attendance stipend almost every year and felt guilty about taking two personal days this year. Many of the other teachers are frequently absent. One day we were missing 14 teachers. Two teachers quit in the middle of the school year.

Morale is low, and everyone just seems tired.

This new threat, if indeed it is one, is just another one of the many irritations this year. I was just about to dismiss it completely when I saw on the news that seven students were arrested today for bringing two guns to school. That school is not that far from here.

I do hope that tomorrow will be just a “normal” day before a break. My German students will make holiday cards for their family, and the 40% of English students who missed the first deadline for their papers will hopefully not miss the final one.

Let’s all have a peaceful and quiet Christmas and a Happy (less crazy) New Year!