Monday morning.
A colleague just sat down next to me, wide-eyed: "D'you know one of my Third Years? (We'll call her) Jenny? Well, she was sitting in my class this morning as usual and at one point said she wasn't feeling too well. I told her to have a drink of water and wait and see (the way you do) and went on with my biology class. Some minutes later one of the girl's friends asked me 'Is it normal to feel queasy after an abortion?' Because, you see, it turns out Jenny had been having an abortion on Friday, that's why she wasn't feeling too great."
Jenny's fourteen.
Another colleague came up and said "Did you know (again, let's call him) Tom's grandma died? You know, he had been living with her since he was small because his parents rejected him. Now we don't know what's to become of him. I don't think he's fully realized what's happened yet."
Well, you can say that again. That 13-year-old boy had been sitting in my class that morning as always, had smiled at me in his special, awkward way and complained about having English in order to get some kind of reaction, some attention, like every morning.
I tried to recall my own behaviour and just prayed that I hadn't made any stupid, thoughtless remarks towards him. Which is silly, because something is always going on in these kids' lives, so you can't really spend your time tip-toeing around them. But still, when you're reminded of their fragility like that, you wish like mad you weren't among those who made things worse for them.
There are more "incidents" like these of course. One of "my" pupils has been admitted to the psychiatric hospital on account of countless intestinal obstructions without apparent physical causes - and now, after 8 months of finding nothing the experts finally hit upon the words "abuse" and "rape". She won't be coming back to our school whenever all this is over. If it's ever over.
I don't know.
It's just that things like these are difficult to stomach with a recently upset stomach and without fair warning and a good night's sleep.
A colleague just sat down next to me, wide-eyed: "D'you know one of my Third Years? (We'll call her) Jenny? Well, she was sitting in my class this morning as usual and at one point said she wasn't feeling too well. I told her to have a drink of water and wait and see (the way you do) and went on with my biology class. Some minutes later one of the girl's friends asked me 'Is it normal to feel queasy after an abortion?' Because, you see, it turns out Jenny had been having an abortion on Friday, that's why she wasn't feeling too great."
Jenny's fourteen.
Another colleague came up and said "Did you know (again, let's call him) Tom's grandma died? You know, he had been living with her since he was small because his parents rejected him. Now we don't know what's to become of him. I don't think he's fully realized what's happened yet."
Well, you can say that again. That 13-year-old boy had been sitting in my class that morning as always, had smiled at me in his special, awkward way and complained about having English in order to get some kind of reaction, some attention, like every morning.
I tried to recall my own behaviour and just prayed that I hadn't made any stupid, thoughtless remarks towards him. Which is silly, because something is always going on in these kids' lives, so you can't really spend your time tip-toeing around them. But still, when you're reminded of their fragility like that, you wish like mad you weren't among those who made things worse for them.
There are more "incidents" like these of course. One of "my" pupils has been admitted to the psychiatric hospital on account of countless intestinal obstructions without apparent physical causes - and now, after 8 months of finding nothing the experts finally hit upon the words "abuse" and "rape". She won't be coming back to our school whenever all this is over. If it's ever over.
I don't know.
It's just that things like these are difficult to stomach with a recently upset stomach and without fair warning and a good night's sleep.
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