Week 7: Mystery Pooper

This week at Indian High School we were student-free on Monday as we had a scheduled professional workday. We spent the morning in our content-area departments in order to discuss best practices. After this, we were given time to work in our classrooms and plan for the week. For me, this was spent putting together the to-do lists that I share with students at the beginning of each unit and updating grades. It was a productive afternoon that I was grateful to have. 

Mobile Move. Four years ago, in the 2017-2018 school year, the social studies department moved to mobile units outside the brick-and-mortar school. Our department volunteered as a whole to make the move with the understanding that our new school would be completed in the 2020-2021 school year. We expected three years in the mobiles and accepted the move with mild grumblings of packing and unpacking. The move to the new school has been delayed consistently, and is still undetermined. 

The Challenges. Being in a mobile has come with challenges. The first was when the mobiles themselves did not arrive on time. When they did, the air conditioning didn't work and didn't have reliable internet. To date, we still do not have functioning fire alarms. I believe that some of my coworkers are without intercom services. Then there are the more obvious challenges, like space and overcrowding, which really is not an issue this school year. 

The Results. More implicit challenges that I did not anticipate was my involuntary withdrawal from the school climate. The first thing I noticed about not being in the building was not getting to see students during class changes. This was particularly useful when I was coaching because I could keep up with which students were spending time together outside of class. This was also a time I could meet with coworkers to share funny stories from the class period before. It was time to blow off some steam and prepare for the next group. I do not get to spend the time chatting with coworkers because I have to rush to the bathroom and back (my mobile connects to another, so I am not 100% solo). I don't like not being in my room as my students arrive, so I don't dilly-dally on my trip to the restroom. I miss chatting, and I miss seeing another side of my students' lives. 

The Smell. This week something happened in my mobile between the Monday of no students and the Tuesday morning when we came back. This something manifested as a wretched smell coming from what is a storage area but is actually a bathroom. My mobile-mate and I discussed what this awful smell could be, and we determined it must be a dead animal beneath the mobile. She used duct tape to cover the drains in what would be the bathroom and alerted the front office to our unpleasant situation. She sprayed various disinfectants, and I propped my door open after spraying Lysol. This made working in the atmosphere tolerable. 

The Cause. Wednesday custodial services were dispatched to our mobile. It was determined that the cause of the wretched smell was from someone defecating in my toilet! That's right, someone pooped in the non-functioning toilet! Never, ever has this toilet worked. As a matter of fact, I had things stacked on top of the toilet, as I have since we moved in. Further, we do not allow students into our back room. The only time I have students in the room is for taking a test privately, school shooter drills, or discipline issues (never with the door closed). The mystery pooper would have had to move all of my junk and know that the toilet was back there in order to relieve themselves. To crack this mystery we have to consider several factors. This person would have had to know that the toilet was there, had access to private time, and been able to move the considerable amount of junk I have stored. Needless to say, the mystery is unsolved.

The Culprit? I am willing to consider that this was a practical joke, as I have been a little mischievous in my day and while I would not have had the courage to pull this one off, I can see the humor. Looking back, I have been the victim of some student practical jokes. Once a student tried to toss little spitballs into my glass of water. Now my drinks always have lids. Random items have shown up over the years in my classroom too, such as a Danny Devito picture on my podium. Clearly, this incident wins for its level of disgust, but I am not sure it was a student, as we seldom leave students alone for long periods of time and we would have heard the rumblings during school hours. Regardless of who pooped in my toilet, I was thoroughly disgusted at the thought of any person with their pants down in my classroom. The idea is revolting.

Mega Mystery. Considering this week's blog post, the word mystery resonated. Mystery because I don't know who had the will to empty their bowels in a toilet that obviously didn't work. It is a mystery that likely won't be solved and I can live with that. There are some other mysteries that make my job more difficult.

Mystery #1 the case of the missing administrator: our principal was out for a few days and no one knew why. Thankfully this was very professionally cleared up to health issues.

Mystery #2 is the case for moving BACK to full-time, face-to-face instruction. It seems that this is on the table as cases of Coronavirus are getting back to July levels. Why is a mystery to me. 

Mystery #3 for me will continue to be how the state of SC can expect things like assessments and evaluations to be on similar levels as previous school years. 

Mystery #4 are the disappearing students that get moved from face-to-face learning to online learning without so much as an email. Did these students test positive for coronavirus? Was I exposed? Were my students exposed? 

While I have a funny story for this week's blog post as a result of someone's weirdo restroom choices, it reminds me of better days and helps me know that this reality is not forever. There will be a day when I have an actual classroom, a relationship with students and coworkers of value, and hope for the future. The moments that inspire laughter, kinship, and camaraderie are ones that make being an educator worthwhile. Unfortunately, the lack of this sense of community and the negligence of attention to student and teacher health are the things that add to teacher turn-over. I anticipate that the state of South Carolina will soon be undergoing a severe teaching shortage, and that makes me sad for the students that will miss out on some valuable lessons. 

This link reports on teacher retention rates in South Carolina. Without a sense of community, teachers are in trouble. I hope to comment more on this next week. 

School-Level Factors Associated with Teacher Retention in South Carolina Xumei Fan, Fan Pan, Tammie S. Dickenson, Gina M. Kunz & Thomas E. Hodges University of South Carolina | October 2020