Teacher gone Wild.
It is a sad state of affairs when someone we are supposed to trust goes wild on you. Events in recent years have shown us shocking scenes when a lone disturbed student goes on a rampage killing fellow students and teachers senselessly. In my youth this was an unheard of event. One would never think such atrocities would happen to them or any U.S. school that a student would go wild. But what happens when a teacher goes wild? I’m not talking about gun violence but physical rage when a teacher goes wild on a student.
When repeating the Fifth grade it happened to me. Unbeknownst to the boys in my class. The girls had complained about the boys hoarding the kick ball when playing “Monkey in the Middle” with them to the teacher. We also complained about the girls always going to the playground monitor a teacher assigned to watch over the playground and complaining ending the game when the monitor would take the ball away from the boys and give it to the girls. Just before the morning recess our teacher explained the situation to us boys and we agreed to give the girls more often in game. The girls had agreed not to go telling the playground monitor. We all left for recess to enjoy a roaring game of “Monkey in the Middle”. We boys shared the ball as much as the as the game allowed. However something went horridly wrong. A girl from another class in the game was upset she didn’t get the ball as often as the others did. She went to the monitor and complained.
I just got the ball from another boy turned my back around to face a girl in the middle. I faked tossing the ball over her and held on to the ball. At the corner of my eye I saw another player behind me and threw the ball over my head thinking that the boy would catch the the ball. I turned around just in time to see the ball hit the playground monitor smack in the face knocking of his glasses to the ground. To my horror this teacher picked me off the ground shaking me about hollering at me while he proceeded to slap be left and right over my face. He literally held me up my my throat in one hand while he continued to throttle me mercilessly. How long I couldn’t tell you but I was very near passing out either from shock or lack of air. All I could do was try and get the man to stop. I saw and heard my classmates screaming to the teacher to let me go, while some even tried to pull me away from him. Before I knew another teacher had arrived and she managed to get the monitor to let go of me. I fell to the ground in a shivering huddle while the teacher who came to my rescue picked me up and carried back into the school. I saw a group of my classmates following the teacher behind me crying and just as upset as was the teacher carrying me to safety.
I don’t remember much that transpired after the teacher took me to the school nurse. I went from being numb to violent crying and shaking. At some point my mother was called and soon arrived at the school one look at me she screamed “Oh my God”. She turned away and went right in to the principal office screaming at him what happened! Meanwhile the nurse took me back to my classroom where it was obvious my classmates where still upset as well as was my teacher. She told me she was very sorry about what happened. The girls in the room were very sympathetic each one coming up to me and apologized. The boys in the class, well they were boys and were very macho about it, some even making comments about how next time they would deck the dude (or something like that). My mother arrived and had a talk with my teacher then proceeded to take me home. Before we left the building my Father arrived ready to kill someone, “no one hits my boy and gets away with it”. Mother and the principal had to hold my Dad back and explain the teacher was sent home. The principal made it very clear that this teacher would be suspended for now and most likely asked to retire. For now my parents needed to take me home let everyone calm down and get together in a few days and sort things out. The principal felt it was best that I take a few days off from school to settle my nerves. Nerves my foot man, I was shattered and frighten. A teacher had just went wild on me. Take a few days off I’m never coming back.
Reliving these events have reopened some of those deep scares on my psychic. Though these events happened back in 1964 they still make me shiver recalling the event. The teacher gone wild did retire that week only after leaning of more like events in his own class. Apparently he was losing his temper often and striking out at students in his class. My twin had been in his class before relating these incidents to our parents. After a few days passed I got the rogue teacher his story about what led up to his rage and why. He told the story that he had yelled at me and that I refused to stop and deliberately tossed the ball behind me knowing it would hit him in the face. Good story except for one fact. I am hearing impaired. I didn’t hear him yelling at me to stop nor did I hear him coming up behind me. His counter to that was it doesn’t wash I heard him. My parents counter to him. What are those things in your ears. He retired or rather was forced to retire. You see or rather you can’t. The teacher gone wild wore two hearing aids and had coke bottom bottle thick lenses. It just didn’t wash for him did it.
