Requiem for a Fight

Unless you've been under a rock this week, you know that we had a large fight and two other "incidents" that followed at the basketball game on Tuesday night. When something like this happens, I always struggle with the perception that it places on our school, our staff, our students, our community, and on me. To sum it up, it's embarrassing. After the gym was mostly cleared of fans and the game resumed, I sat on the empty side of the gym at center court alone. What could I have done differently? What will I have to change as a result? What will I need to do tomorrow for the students and parents involved? All of these thoughts swirled in my head like a tight fishbowl. I take it very personally when something like that happens. I guess that's why I jump in to stop it in the first place. It's our image and it's my job to protect it. 

But if you think Tuesday night was tough, you wanted no part of my Wednesday. That's when I have to make decisions and judgments to clean up the mess. And you can absolutely believe that on my best day, I'll never come close to pleasing most of the people involved. The people directly involved claim very little and people with nothing to do with it bring you a lot of unsolicited answers. By 5:00 pm I had made my decisions, spoken with students and parents, relayed information to my boss, listened to the rebuttals, and decided to leave things as I had them. I like to reflect on big events like this and I had a hard time getting it out of my head that night. I remembered sitting there on that bleacher alone. I wasn't there more than a few minutes before I was joined by Mrs. Willis, then Coach Bryant, then several others. I thought back to the staff members that needed no directions to step up and hold our student section still until they knew that we could get them out safely. I thought about the several that looked for my daughter in the chaos and made sure that she was taken care of. I was never alone. 

And while events like this give fodder to those that choose to gossip, throw stones, or try their hand at being keyboard bullies, it doesn't define who we are. The number of kids doing great things outnumbers the bad on even our worst days. In the words of Sarah Gray (a Greene Central graduate and educator), "Wrong is wrong, and believe it or not 9 times out of 10 our students own their wrongdoing. But I, along with lots of others, see all the good they do, too, every single day. All the times they get it right. All the battles they face and overcome, all the time, that people know nothing about." 

It's always fun to celebrate the accomplishments and the good times, but it's the bad times that show everyone what you're made of. Thanks for being right by my side in this bad time, and thanks even more for defending what we truly are.