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Oho! So, some of you were actually reading this thing! And here I thought that the only person paying any attention was my niece, Erin...and I was ready to just pick up the phone and call her with all of this stuff. But, since several people have harangued me (okay, inquired politely, but it felt like haranguing to me!) about telling you all what happened...I'll relent. Here's the update.

ME - As I expected, the school district rescinded my layoff notice...science teachers are as common as "compassionate conservatives" so I get to keep my job for this next year...actually I predict a mid-year budget crisis that will have them issue me another pink slip...so stay tuned. If I'm wrong, you get to tell me and I'll be happy to be wrong!

About the various students...

LJ - the boy who was arrested for allegedly throwing a fire cracker out of the school bus...the judge threw the case out when he heard the evidence and said it never should have gone that far. LJ returned to school to plenty of hugs and happiness...and was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Without health insurance, he and his family now have an actually very serious problem to deal with. Good thing he's not sitting in jail too.

The other two boys who were arrested for inciting a riot...the one who had the panic attack which started the "riot" pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and received probation...his fellow students wrote messages on a "we miss you" poster outside my classroom which made him very happy on the two occasions he came back to visit...he will be returning to us next fall if all goes according to plan...the second young man was 18 and already had a record so he received a short jail sentence and probation and will not be returning.

DJ, the girl who cut herself went back into the hospital for several weeks and when she came back was very tough to reach...she wound up not trying to make up any work she missed and failed Biology....after a few weeks she began smiling again....and then her cousin (the one that got the gift basket at Christmas) was admitted to a mental ward of the hospital mainataining that she heard voices telling her to kill herself a week after a friend of hers committed suicide...she too was gone awhileand had a tough time bouncing back (who wouldn't?).

I gave all of my students my cell phone number and email address and told them to call or email me anytime over the summer. Other teachers tell me I'm crazy for doing that, but I've never had a single student abuse that priviledge (they don't send me stupid forwards that clutter my email inbox!), and, let's face it, if you're telling me this is evidence I'm crazy then you're crazy for overlooking all of the other evidence that points in the same direction...so who's crazier?

Okay, that's all for this semester. Next year instead of AP Envi Sci I'll be teaching Marine Science. One of my goals is to have some of my students become certified SCUBA divers...that will totally expand their view of their place in the world and what is possible for them. It's hard to think too much of yourself when you enter the underwater world and it's hard to think too little of yourself when you've overcome fears and ignorance to earn the right to call yourself a SCUBA diver.

By the way, if you enjoy reading this blog, you'd better let me know in the comments. If there's something you'd like to know more about, let me know that too. I hate typing all of this stuff and then not getting any feedback....I could be eating chocolate instead!