The Urban Daily

Chapter 13

Katrina

“Jamal, what did I tell you about running around the classroom with scissors?” I scolded the little six year old boy that had pair of safety scissors, pointing upward in his hand. He sucked his teeth as he slowed down and soon came to stop when I walked over to him.

“You said to never run with a pair of scissors because that’s dangerous and I could seriously hurt myself or others.” He recited, rolling his eyes in an irritated manner.

“So why are you running around the classroom chasing the girls with them?” I asked him, the question being more of a rhetorical one. Taking his hand, I led him over to the time out spot in the corner.

“I want you to sit here and think about what could’ve happened if somebody got hurt with those scissors. I’m giving you five minutes to sit and think and I’ll be back. Don’t even think about getting up from this spot either.”

Walking away, I heard Jamal whine to himself about how much he hated being in this class, but I didn't pay him much attention. Since of the beginning of my senior year, I’ve been working here at the community’s recreational center, in the daycare parts, while they’re parents went to school or work. I loved kids and being able to have a job working with them made me really happy.

Some people hated kids because of the general stereotypes of them being raised with no home training and believed that they were little monsters with attitudes and threw tantrums and even though that was accurate at times, that wasn’t true for every single kid in the world, especially not the kids that I worked with every day.

I sat in one of the kids’ plastic chairs after going around the classroom, picking up the toys that they had left behind. There were about fifteen kids left and one by one, their parents were coming to pick them up. Fifteen minutes past and there were six kids still left.

Alexis, our newest transfer kid, was sitting in the plush beanbag chair in a corner, by herself. She looked sad as she watched two other girls, Denise and Casey, sit at a table, coloring in their coloring books. They were talking to each other about something and I soon noticed that after every few words they’d speak to each other, they’d look over at Alexis and start laughing, which caused me to get up and go over to her.

“What’s wrong Alexis?” I asked her, bending down to her level. She removed her eyes from Denise and Casey, staring at me with a pair of sad eyes, shaking her head nothing, as a response. Looking away, her eye contact was directed towards the floor and she sat upwards against the cubbies, pulling her knees to her chest.

“Well, something must be wrong if you’re sitting here all yourself.” I told her, picking her head up so that she was looking at me. We held contact for a few seconds before she looked away and lowered her head again.

“Denise and Casey are being mean to me and during recess; they said I couldn’t play with them.” She finally spoke. “I asked if I could play with them and Denise said no. Casey said yes at first but changed her mind when Denise told her that she wasn’t going to be her friend if she didn’t say no.”

My eyebrow rose as I looked over to Denise and Casey again, seeing that they had gotten up from the table and had gone outside on the small playground with the other teacher that worked with me. Small situations like these happened almost every day and I dealt with every single one of them the same.

“C’mon, let’s go and talk to them.” I told her, standing back up. She looked at me like I had just grown two heads, in other words, saying hell to the no.

“No Ms. K, I don’t want to talk to them because they’re going to be mean to me again.”

“No, they’re not because I’m going to be with you. I’m gonna make sure that they’re on their best behavior.” I assured her, taking her hand and lifting her up to her feet. Alexis reluctantly stood up and we walked outside to the monkey bars where Denise and Casey were. Both of their eyes landed on us once they spotted us approaching them.