Back Massage?

One morning one of my all time favorite students came to school in a very bad mood. He stormed into the class and slammed his book bag down on the table.
"What's your problem?" I asked.
"Nothing leave me alone," he said.
I knew the kid well enough to know that if I gave him sometime he'd calm down and then we could work out whatever his issue was. He was 17 years old, but socially he was more like 12. His home life was...not the best.
Usually his bad moods lasted less than an hour. A few times during the day I'd ask him what was bothering him and he would not talk. At one point during math class he got so upset he broke his pencil and told the classroom aid to shut the hell up.

I could tolerate a bad mood as long as he was respectful. I couldn't tolerate him speaking to an adult like that. I escorted the student to a seprate room across the hallway. We used this room as a quiet place for kids to calm down.

The student sat in the one desk we had in the small room.

"What's your problem?"
"Nothing. I just hate that fat idiot!" he said, referring to the classroom aid.
"You came in in a bad mood," I said.
The student put his head down and started to cry. Because I knew the family background I wondered if his behavior had soemthing to do with something that happend at home. Then he spoke.

"Well how would you feel if you got grounded from you bike? And grounded from your play station?"

I said, "I'd probably be mad too, but there is a right way and a wrong way to handle being angry." Then I asked the worst question possible........"What did you do?"

He put his head back down on the desk. Without picking his head he started, "Well first, I was up past my bed time...and I wanted choclate. Then my mom woke up and started bitchin' at me and that;s when she grounded me."

That explanation seemed good enough for me. I said, "Well, you know when it's time for bed you shouldn't give your mom grief about getting choclate or getting ready for school tomorrow."

"She was alreay asleep...I woke her up."
"I'd probably be mad at you too if you woke me up."
"I tried to be quiet but I couldn't get the damn thing back together."

Hhhmmm. What did that mean? This student had a habbit of taking things apart...tv's, computers, telephones, bikes, pretty much anything. Actually it was part of his disablity...honestly.

"What?" I asked.

"Well it was like teo in the morning and I wanted choclate. So I went into my mom's room and she was a sleep. I went into her underwaer drawer to look for candy."

I stopped him there and explained that he should never EVER go into his mom's underwear drawer. But he continued on.

"When I was trying to put the damn thing back together she woke up."

Silly me I asked. "Why did you need to take her dresser apart to look for chocolate at two in the morning on a school night?"

He sat up straight, "Not the dresser... IT WAS HER BACK MASSAGER!!!!!!!!! The Goddamn thing was going off...bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzz. I couldn't put it back together and she woke up. I said SHIT! and I tried to push it under the bed but the damn thing was still going bzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzz"

It took all of my collective strength not to laugh at the kid. "Listen, as a buddy I'm telling you to never repeat this to anyone...ever!"

"Stupid looking back massager...it was blue but bent a little at the end. How was I supposed to know it was a back massager?" He said...completely serious.

I pleaded with him not to discuss the incident any further because my stomach hurt from trying not to laugh.

"Yeah well, she woke up and started cursing me out. She said Bill (fakename) you little bastard...what the F...are you doing?"

I tried to redirect the conversation and explain the importance of listening and being respectful, but the kid was still mad that he was grounded from his bike and his video games. It came to a point where I couldn't hold it and busted out laughing, which caused the kid to start laughing.

There is a second part to this......for tomorrow