Summer vacation, please?

Yesterday wasn't bad as Mondays go and I guess I got cocky. I forgot about something we in the business call "Tuesday". Tuesday hit like a sucker punch. The kids were just off the hook. This would have been enough but the ways they were off the hook were just amazing. Out of my 38 there were at least 14 throwing stuff at different points of the day. Probably 32 were talking constantly. Perhaps 20 were tearing out pages of their notebooks, textbooks, whatever, and tossing ripped pages on the floor, creating paperballs, eating the friggin' paper, or doing all three. Fifteen of them were yelling at me, cursing, fighting, walking around the room, you name it.

This still could have been somewhat bearable if our administration was supporting the teachers but they aren't. If I send a kid to the disciplinarian the kid returns in 15 minutes. Usually with a smug grin on his face. If I send a kid to the assistant principal of discipline the kid comes back even faster and with a bigger grin. Our principal doesn't suspend anyone anymore. "Have you prepared a CSAP?" A yes gets a "Let's wait for the paperwork to take effect." A no gets a "Well, you need to do the paperwork first." Oh, and they are going to observe the teachers and write informal notes on performance and hallway behavior and the rest. Hello! The kids are out of control. Stop beating up the teachers, you morons! Suspend some kids. Make their neglectful parents come in and find out about their horrible kids.

This isn't going to happen. Our principal isn't suspending anyone anymore. It would require work. Our assistant principal isn't disciplining anyone anymore. The friggin' inmates are running the asylum. Every kid knows this and they're getting worse because they know nothing will happen to them. What's it going to take? Perhaps a teacher needs to get seriously injured? A colleague of mine in another school practically got his leg broken when a kid threw a desk at him. He can't walk without a cane right now. I don't want that to happen to me. My students are capable of stuff like that. I see their anger. They are so angry. So angry they don't even know what they are angry about.

Just let me get to the finish line. That's all I'm asking for. I'm so friggin' exhausted and just a little scared. Perhaps a novena to St. Jude will help? I'm a hopeless case if there ever was one and I just want the summer vacation.