Winter Season

A student

Oscar was sitting at his desk dreaming about going home. But that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. He was asked to be part of a teachers meeting about one of his students. The state of dread in him was great. He shot Esther a text to let her know he was going to be late but had no idea how late. 

Six teachers and the principal sat in the teachers’ lounge talking about this student. Oscar listened with detached interest.

“Mr. Patterson, do you have anything you would like to add to the conversation?”  Principal Davis asked him.

“Mr. Smith can be disruptive. But he hasn’t done anything that would warrant me sending him to you. If he likes the material, he is as good as gold. But if he’s bored, he fidgets. I try to redirect his attention. It works most of the time.”

“Most of the time, what happens when it doesn’t work?”

“I find a different way to redirect his attention.”

Cindy spoke up, “I have had other students complain about him.” It was the strangest thing; her nervous tick of clicking her tongue was gone. Could Esther have been right? Had she been interested in him?

One of the other teachers passed around a log of all the things Mr. Smith had done in her class. Oscar reached for it with his left hand, Cindy screamed, “a wedding band!” She blushed, “when did you get married?”

“Last weekend, but we aren’t here to talk about my marriage. We are here to talk about a way to make sure Duke finishes high school. Are we not?”

“I say kick him out.” Norman voiced. “He’s not going to amount to anything anyway.”

Oscar was ashamed. “Who are we to judge that?”

“The people that’s trying to teach him,” Norman shot back.

In a very calm voice, Principal Davis spoke, “Oscar, he has an F in everyone’s class but yours.”

“Maybe he just likes science?” Came Oscar’s sarcastic answer.

Patty snorted, “Maybe his dad grows pot?”

“Then wouldn’t he be better off in vocational school?” Oscar retorted, “I think future farmers of America might be a good fit.”

“We still have a lot of things to do before we can decide what to do with him?” Davis let out a long sigh. “But we did need to get together and talk about this. I have had way to many complains on this child to let it go any longer. Let’s meet again in two weeks to see if the situation has changed before I take this to the superintendent.”

Everyone agreed and went home.

Winter Season