It was a Friday morning; I could practically see the weekend. Chris, one student who never fails to amuse me, is playing with something under his desk. Now, normally, I would let it go, but this week alone I'd taken a toy motorcycle, a rubber skateboard, and a handle of tech decks. So, as the rest of the class is working in pairs, I walk over to Chris and ask him softly to give whatever he is playing with to me. He looks up and shakes his head no. I ask again, and he continues to shake his head. "Ok Chris, you're making the choice to give whatever you're playing with to the office instead of me," I say. "I'll give it back at the end of the day," I reaffirm. At this, the student looked like he was about to cry as he extends his hand and releases whatever he is playing with in my hand. I look what he has dropped in my hand, and I almost have a spaz attack. It is a empty condom wrapper (unbelievable--a condom wrapper).
(THOUGHTS TO MYSELF: where in the world did you get this? why in the world do you have this? what did you do with it? where it is? who do i call for these sort of things? It's only 10:00 am, and I still have two more sections to go. Is it 3:00 yet!?!?)
As the rest of the class is getting ready to leave (mass chaos...some of the students are heading to PE, others are heading to math), Chris is trying to slip our of my sight. Students are yelling bye and dropping off their work as they're rushing out the door. "Have a safe weekend," I manage to say. Chris is now slumped in his chair, looking at the ground. Once everyone has left, I walk over to the student while rubbing hand sanitizer over and over again.
Me: "Where did you get this?"
Chris: "It's not mine. It's my cousins. He placed it there last night, I mean Thursday, I mean Friday."
Me: "Ok...so why didn't you throw it away?"
Chris: "Uh-I forgot it was in there..."
Me: "Really? How is that possible? It was in your pocket. An empty condom wrapper was in your pocket and you forgot about it? I find that hard to believe."
Chris (shrugging his shoulders): "Am I in trouble?"
Me: "I'm concerned. I'm concerned that you had this on you, and I'm concerned that you went to the bathroom for 10 minutes. So, I'm going to take this to the office, and I'm going to call you're Dad. If they want to talk to you, they'll let you know."
As I'm holding open the door, Chris walks out towards the field. I watch him and head back inside my classroom. Moments later, I check back on him, and there is Chris running towards the fence. I swing open the door and yell, "Christopher ____________ you get over here right now! Where do you think you're going?"
We walk to the office, and of course, no one was there. I wrap the condom wrapper in a piece of paper and wrote a sticky note on it that read: Hi, Chris was playing with this in class. His story seems unreliable. Call my room. I left Chris and the "present" with the secretary.
Later that day, I run into my principal, who is practically laughing at me. She says, "At least you know never to ask for anything in your hand!" Thanks...
RAWR
