Today, I found out that one of my babies from last year brought a knife to school :(.  He said he brought it because a group of girls were teasing him and wouldn't leave him alone.  This child still gives me hugs everyday, gets really excited when he sees me in the halls or at recess, and even hooks me up with his the portions of his lunch he won't eat (haha)...but never once told me what was going on or that he felt so defenseless.  He said he brought it to protect himself, just in case anything happened.  He said he tried to tell a teacher, but when he told her she said, "Words are just words.  Just ignore it."  It's been happening for the entire school year so he had enough...

It makes me sad that kids can be so mean to eachother.  It also makes me sad that sometimes guns, knives, and violence are the only solutions they know.  But it makes me more sad that teachers, including myself, can easily be very insensitive and just plain clueless to what's going on in their students' lives while they are at school.  It's easy to get caught up in the acdemic things we have to teach, the lesson plans, other misc. paper work, and administration/district pressures.
It was a good reminder for me :) and will continue to be for the next several weeks...since the student will be serving ISS in my classroom instead of going to alt school...yay!  (I don't agree with alt. school.)