oh, austin

i figured i could share a little story that happened my first year of teaching. teacher stories can be pretty hilarious. i just tend to forget things that happen before i even get home from school! anyway, this is definitely in my top three best stories ever....here goes.

i teach special ed (resource) in a small catholic school. my room is (used to be)directly across the hall from the primary hall bathrooms (there are 4 grades that share these potties, ranging from 3K-4th). sometimes this can be quite a bother. kids get loud in the bathroom. they find anything they can to stay out of their classrooms for as long as possible. this includes things like banging the stall doors into the wall, pulling the toilet paper until there is none left on the roll, squirting soap on the floor to "skate", hang like a monkey from the stall door, stand on the toilet and have a conversation with your neighbor, play hide and seek, have a disco party with the lights, clog up the sink, take handfuls of water and put it in the floor drain, stand in front of the mirror and stick your tongue out at yourself, scream and listen for the echo, and my favorite...smear poo on the walls. i heard little boy voices laughing while in the bathroom. i knew something big was up because there is no talking allowed, much less, laughter....laughter meant either talking or someone doing something they really, really, really shouldn't. so, i poke my head in. the conversation went like this:

me: "hey guys, there's no talking in the bathroom."
them: still laughing, "ooohhhhh, ahhhhhhh.....sick!! gross!!!" (there were at least three of them in there. second graders.
me: "don't think i won't walk in the boys bathroom to see what's up. let's come on out."
them: "there's a toilet clogged up with poo! sick!!"
me: "i'll call maintenance and get them to take care of it. come on, outta there."
austin: filing out of the bathroom, soggy toilet paper on his arm from the tips of his fingers up to his elbow..."i took care of it." he must have seen my look of horror. "it's okay. i wrapped my arm in toilet paper so that i wouldn't get any germs."
so, next time you're cleaning your bathroom, remember austin, and in his honor, wear some rubber gloves!