The "Fight"

It's funny how procrastination can work in your favor. I should have blogged about my physical confrontation with a student last week, but I postponed it until this week. Now, many of you will have the context of my pitiable performance at VRCC's "Turkey Bowl" flag football game to back up my story. Long story short, I am somewhat less than graceful. This served me poorly a week or so ago when a student decided that he just had to get into a fight right in front of my classroom door about five minutes before first period started. I stepped in between the student and his intended victim to encourage him to get to class, but he was not disuaded. He continued to verbally challenge the other student, so I started to "herd" him towards the office. Suddenly, he decided to charge towards the (much smaller) student that he had a problem with and I stepped in his way a second time. This time he shoved into me hard and tried to move me out of his way. I stood my ground, but as was demonstrated on Sunday, it is difficult to get my girth to change direction once I get my momentum going. Long story short, he side stepped me, and I tripped and fell. Somewhere in the melee, I earned the war wounds you see in the picture above.

Alright, now here is where my ego is getting the better of me. I was on the ground no longer than two seconds. I immediately got up, confronted the student again, and successfully restrained him until the principal arrived to escort the student to the office. Almost immediately, however, the story spread how "Mr. Hylemon was dropped" by a student. Now, in all honesty I could care less what a bunch of kids think of my fighting prowess (like this is really a measure of my worth as a man or a teacher), but I became more troubled throughout the day and since the incident by the number of my co-workers who were not present for the event coming to me and asking me with deathly seriousness, "Are you okay?" and sympathizing with me how "wild" the kids are this year. It seems somehow overly defensive to protest that the situation was overblown, that I was a victim of my own clumsiness and not of an ill behaved child, so I let the comments go, but that feels just as wrong, as it's only adding credence to the erroneously reported version of events.

So, that is the story of my first big school "fight" and the resulting fallout. To be honest with you, I'm kind of over it now and I only mentioned it because I promised to do so. Next week I'll have something more entertaining.