~Never Surrender / Never Say Die~

“When They Try To Break You Down
You Can Take It, That Don't Shake You
When Your Back's Against The Wall
The Thrill Of The Fight's Got Ya Standin' Tall
Never Surrender
Never Say Die”
~ Stan Bush

It’s a funny old life. Until yesterday I was saying how Pensnett High School wasn’t quite as bad as OLCC. Sure it’s a rough school, but I’d never been physically threatened, much less assaulted.

This changed yesterday.

Yesterday I was mostly being a PE teacher. This was a worry of mine anyways, as PE lessons are generally difficult to control and, especially in a sports hall, my hearing ain’t so good. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it, but in big, echoing environments with lots of people talking at once, I find it tricky to distinguish individual voices, especially ones two feet below my altitude.

Double this with the fact that I’m not a PE teacher, was working with someone else, and was teaching mostly shitty classes, it was a recipe for disaster. And it was, though I have to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

It all started because a little chav kid decided to wear his hat indoors.

Now, normally when you ask a kid to take their hat off, they are reluctant but will do so upon a repetition of the instruction. Now, this particular child was already an issue because he hadn’t got his PE kit, so he was strutting round the gym in his big, dumb coat and hat. Bear in mind that the kid is about 4’ tall. It was a comical sight. But I can’t stand people that wear hats indoors, and it’s against the uniform code anyway. So I asked him to take it off.

He refuses. Okay, no massive surprise. I ask him again and he continues to refuse and walks off. However, one of his mates decides to knick it off his head and passes it to me. Fair play really. So I have the hat, and tell the kid he can have it back at the end of the lesson.

Bring the fun.

He’s not happy. He literally starts shouting at me that he wants it back now. Come on, that might work with his parents but it isn’t going to work with me. Give him something just because he isn’t happy and he’ll be a disaster in later life. A real spoilt brat. This was affirmed when, instead of accepting that he was being an idiot, he tried to snatch the hat out of my hand. When a simple snatch didn’t work, he tried to wrest it from me. First with one hand. Then with two. I’m not actually a particularly strong person despite my 6’4” height and broad shoulders. I lack upper body strength. But I do have a decent grip and a fairly high pain threshold. And no shitty, bad-mannered little kid is gonna get one over on me in a contest of strength.

Snatching, swiping, verbal abuse. The hallmarks of a train wreck of a kid. I realised about this time that I was probably just making trouble for myself, but I’m pretty stubborn, and since it seems a fair few parents can’t raise their children with any kind of manners or respect, I’ll be damned if I’m not going to at least try and teach them that. (I know: sounds horribly idealistic doesn’t it!)

The kid actually wandered off at this point, seemingly defeated. He went to sulk in the corner. Or, rather, he went to badmouth me to all the other Non-Doers of PE that were sat on the benches. One of said children, a not-particularly-pleasant girl then began acting as some kind of messenger for him, variably threatening me, pleading with me to give him his hat back, and telling me I couldn’t do what I was doing.

Apparently, telling me that he “has to go home at lunchtime and needs his hat” is a rational bargaining chip. Yes, because his “hundred quid hat” is a vital part of his ambulatory functioning. Sigh. After about ten minutes of constant back and forth by this girl, I began to get fed up. I was trying to help the other member of staff deal with a) controlling a fairly large class of kids in a big room; and b) moving another problem child who had apparently gone into some kind of mental shutdown and was just standing there refusing to move. Was kinda freaky actually.

Five minutes till the end of the lesson and Chav Kid Sans Hat comes charging at me as I’m helping kids put the mats away. He goes for the hat, which I have tucked under my arm. He missed, and I reaffirm my grip on it and cross my arms over it. Both he and two other kids proceed to try and snatch at it. None succeed. He starts calling me every name under the sun. The air is practically blue at this point but I’m so fed up with him that I’m not going to relent. Ideally I would have used the interim time to store the hat somewhere safely, but I didn’t have the time. Too many kids needed managing.

So when wresting the hat off me fails, the kid starts building up into a frothing rage and starts punching me. Literally balling his fists and wailing at me. It sounds bad, and in a way it obviously is. It’s assault. But I barely felt his attacks. I don’t know if I was just angry and full of adrenaline, or if he was just a weak little shit, but despite about four punches to my crossed arms, two to my chest and one to my stomach, I didn’t really feel threatened. I was extremely annoyed though. My professional attitude was fast slipping, and the kid was very lucky I didn’t use my elbow to polish his teeth. Accidentally of course.

It turns out that this kid has a member of the support team looking after him. For some reason she missed the first half of the lesson – helpful that – and was of limited use in this confrontation. She had to drag the kid off me. I could have quite easily kept him at bay, and I suppose in retrospect the use of necessary force to push him away would have been appropriate. But generally it’s not worth my while to come into contact with a kid. Generally the law seems to take their side, no matter the circumstance. Call me cynical if you will.

So yes, I handed the hat over to his support staff and walked away. Haven’t yet heard what happened to him, but I at least followed it up and wrote out the necessary incident reports. If I know the procedures of the school, he should be kicked out, but he won’t be. He’ll have a couple of days exclusion and then come back in as if nothing has happened. That’s probably the most annoying thing about it: knowing that nothing will be done, and that he won’t have learned his lesson.

But I stood my ground and stuck to my principles at least, and if nothing has happened to follow up on that, I will think very carefully before going back there again.

I have other stuff to talk about, but I’ll put that in a separate blog.

~J