When I started to work at a state run school, two years ago, I was in charge of first form. This was my first experience in these kinds of schools since I had always worked in bilingual schools. The economic and social situation of this community was really different from the other schools where I had taught before and I felt it was a new challenge in my professional career.
Everything was developing as expected until I met Max[i]. This was a very special boy with many discipline problems. He did whatever he wanted and he did not recognize any kind of authority. If teachers let him do what he wanted to do, he was a very nice boy, but as soon as we asked him to stop or to calm down, he shouted, ran away from the classroom or hid behind a desk so it was very difficult to deal with him. Although we had support from the school authorities, they could not do anything about this situation since the Equipo de Orientación Escolar (EOE) believed that nothing was wrong with the kid.
I remember the first lesson with him: We were working with a story called A Very Lazy Ladybug. It was story time, and a very nice atmosphere to read the story had been created. Students were sitting on the floor, I had dressed up as a storyteller and I had a magic wand to call students attention so that they got prepared to listen to the story. In the middle of the story, this kid started playing with a toy; I ignored him because I did not want to interrupt the reading. Then, he threw the toy at one of his classmates and hit her on the face. I had to stop the story and I tried to talk to him. He started to shout and ran away from the classroom.
It was a really difficult situation because I could not leave him alone outside the classroom and I could not leave the other kids alone while I went to look for him. I had to take a decision, so I made students line up and we went to look for the missing boy together. Unfortunately, the school was very big and I did not have the slightest idea where he could be. Therefore, we walked towards the head’s office. I explained the whole episode to her and she went to look for the boy.
The boy was hiding under a table in the dining room which is on the third floor of the school. The headmistress talked to the boy and she tried to make him calm down while I continued with the lesson in the classroom. During the break, I went to the head’s office and I also talked to the boy. He started to cry and told me that he loved me a lot. The head mistress told me to send a quiet kid to look for her next time something similar happens so that I did not leave the classroom with all the students.
Several weeks went by and the situation got worse. He started hitting his classmates; he escaped from the classroom many times, refused to enter the classroom after breaks or just hid somewhere. I avoided shouting at him or getting angry because I felt that he was used to being treated that way. Sometimes he stopped and listened to me and he frequently asked me how he was behaving.
Finally, the EOE went to school to watch a class and they realized that the boy needed treatment. They decided that a “jornada completa” was not suitable for him so the boy was sent to another school. I would have liked to help him but I did not have the necessary tools to do so.
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