On the Run...

You never know what the day may hold as a principal. We received a new student from an inner-city school one day. I think he experienced culture shock in our rural school. I don't know what kind of school he had attended, but he didn't think he had to follow the rules. I gave him grace for a while as he adjusted to his new rural school, patiently talking to him and explaining his new expectations in this opposite environment. Even walking in line was a difficult task. He'd take off and walk back to the room without his class. Every day, I had a pit in my stomach at lunchtime. Watching to make sure he did not leave the lunchroom before it was time for the students to return to class was a massive task because there were approximately five hundred K-4 students in the lunchroom. I usually stood around the doorway area to be proactive, but that didn't guarantee that a child would come up and talk to me, and I'd miss seeing him sneak out! (That happened a couple of times.) At recess, he was trying to teach a new dance to the kids on the playground. He told me he didn't know why they didn't want to learn that dance. In the classroom, there was the usual...not doing his work and defying the teacher. I would walk in to check on him. The scenario then turned to "having to go to the restroom," taking extended breaks, and walking alone. The teacher had a buddy for him. The buddy would come and get the teacher or myself if he went too far.

Then the ever-dreaded big escape came. The boy wanted out. He did not want to be at school because this school had too many rules. He told me he didn't know why we couldn't be like his old school. On a cloudy morning, this boy decided to take the ultimate "run" to escape. I received a call from his teacher, saying that the boy had just got up and left the room, proceeding to go out the door to the playground. The secretary and guidance counselor took their usual routine walks to look for him. I saw him go through the playground door on the camera. I thought, no sweat, he is locked into the playground. In the meantime, his teacher had another person cover her room. She headed out the door to the playground. He took off running and climbed over the eight-foot chain link fence (I don't think this was his first time to climb one! It was too easy for him!) He thought he would get away as he ran down the sidewalk. Luckily, his teacher was athletic and decided to scale the fence herself and go after him! He kept running down the sidewalk, which was the length of the K-12 school building and stayed behind him. (The video of this was terrific. She deserved extra battle pay for this!) He started running towards the bus garage on the other side of the road. The teacher ran in to get the superintendent since his office was close. The superintendent and teacher jumped in his vehicle and drove to the bus garage, where they quickly found the boy. The superintendent got out of his car and told the boy, who was close to the railroad tracks beside the bus garage, to get in the car. The boy cooperated and got in his car, and they drove back to my office. It was one of those cardiac moments for all of us.

These moments make me glad that I retired. The stress of these incidents was unreal. Not once did they mention these kinds of scenarios in my principal training. I guess if I need to get my heart pumping again, I know where to go!