It's official, it takes 50 days to reach your limit with LAUSD. I still have 9 more days.
I woke up tired this morning. I was not looking forward to going in. I haven't felt this way about going to a job since Space Jam, when I would cry on my commute to work. Similar to Space Jam, the dysfunction starts at the top and makes everything harder as it trickles down.
Ms. Leslie and Mr. Wayne were not at school today. Ms. Jodhi told me that they warned her they were taking days off because they're exhausted. We had 18 kids today. It was 95º.
Ms. Sosie and I finished changing the kids around 1:40, a bit earlier today. We changed Ava, who kicked and screamed until Ms. Jodhi held her standing and I changed her. I asked her mom if she has any pointers on changing her, if standing is preferring, how they do it at home. She said they have a strap on their changing table at home and they strap her down. I smiled and said, she squirms with you too? And her mom agreed and said she's going to try to bring in a mat with a strap for us to use.
It was so miserably hot and humid. It didn't slow the kids down.
We came inside around 3:30, the substitute who looked straight out of high school, Maya, watched the kids in the classroom while Ms. Jodhi and I changed the others. Ms. Jodhi was changing Kairo who was screaming while his dad waited. I finally had Charles left and he was flushing the toilet and putting his hand to feel the water go down. His sleeve started getting wet and his face was getting splashed by the water. Ms. Jodhi was occupied with another student in the other bathroom, and I saw Ms. Tameka's reflection in a window and asked her to come in to talk to Charles. She came in and used her stern voice, not as loud as she does with the older kids, but firm and he listened and stopped. Until his mom came, and he started flushing again.
His mom was disgusted that her son had his arm in the toilet. She got him to stop and was upset as she got him to wash his hands. I gave her the shirt to change him into and she asked how this could happen, why nobody was watching him. I told her that we were changing other children and I tried asking him to stop but he wouldn't. I asked her how she gets him to stop at home, and she said he's never done this at home. Dismissively. Like it's my fault he's doing this at school. I left her with him and told Ms. Jodhi what happened. Charles' mom came into the classroom to sign him and Ms. Jodhi asked her if she's upset. She said she was and the two talked in the hallway.
She said how shocking and disappointing it is to her son with his hand in the toilet, wondering why nobody was watching him. Ms. Jodhi explained that we're understaffed and we're watching to make sure nobody gets hurt, but we can't control every kid at every moment. He wasn't hurt. She got his mom to agree that he has a lot of energy and moves around a lot, she knows what he's like, even if she acts like this doesn't happen at home.
I felt better after talking to Ms. Jodhi. She said the understaffing is what's causing these problems. She told me how Ms. Champ walked past her and Charles mom in the hallway, she didn't even stop to help. That gave me the idea to see what Ms. Champ's solution would be to this situation. Well talking to her made me tear up in frustration.
It felt like she was trying to blame me for what happened. She asked if I had a spotter, where the other teachers were. She told me that I could pull him away, but not too hard, if I have a spotter, I can pick him up and remove him. But I can only pick him up if I have someone who can vouch for my reasoning. I explained to her how everyone in our room was occupied, so luckily I was able to ask another aide, so there were two of us with him. But all she cared about was covering her ass in front of the parents. To make sure that there's two adults in the bathroom to justify anything that happens.
It was a long day. Ms. Champ didn’t leave her usual early time before 4, and Ms. Jodhi couldn’t let me leave with her still there. She said under her breath, get her chick fil a ass home. I laughed too hard.
The system sucks. I'm too hard, I'm too soft. I can't yell but I can pick them up. There is no winning. I'm over it.
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