The Most Often Remembered Part of Middle School

Health

We are back to the health room for diagrams of reproductive organs and lectures on the importance of self-esteem. My teacher talks as little as possible. Mostly, we watch videos. All of the videos are from a series called Degrassi Junior High. Actually, there quite good. And they're Canadian, so they're even better. And they're twenty years old. 

 

For some reason, many people envision health rooms as being full of shy kids who are afraid to speak up from embarrassment. They have obviously not stepped foot in my health classroom. Several kids are so talkative they have to be suppressed. Also, the Internet has not made teaching any easier. It is so overloaded with information, most of health is correcting information, not teaching it.  

 

Health doesn't stay in the health room. If you walked the halls with a tape recorder, you would pick up many conversations about health subjects. Maybe not with terms like 'self-esteem' or 'abstinence', but the general ideas. Students talk very openly with one another, which is important. However, health class information is also used to insult, make others uncomfortable, or to shout out about in the middle of a test. 

It seems, though, that at least the class makes an impact on it's students, which about as good as it can get, right?

"What if they came in here?"

"Well, we could blockade the door with the desks..."

"Or we could just bust through the window."

"If it happens, of course."

It didn't happen. Despite the rumors and the jokes, yesterday was just another day. Besides from the fact that nine hundred and thirty four students didn't show up to T.C. Williams. Or the fact that yesterday was the anniversary of Columbine.

It all began when a few high school students began spreading rumors that they were going to recreate Columbine at T.C. This led to searches, suspensions, and even more rumors. As you can imagine, students reacted differently. Some students laughed at it, like a joke. Some took it very seriously. So seriously, they didn't come to school.

Of course, what happens at T.C. trickles down into the middle schools. Rumors flew there, too. Kids began discussing what would happen if a shooter really did come into the school (completely forgetting that, even if there was an actual plot, T.C. was the only target). They joked about it and added gory details and then stopped abruptly with an expression of "What if this really did happen? In fact, it has happened. What if?"

The school sent out talking points to all of the teachers so that they could talk to their students. That meant that anyone who hadn't known before, now knew.

Nine hundred and thirty four students stayed home from T.C. Williams yesterday.

It was just another day.