The Minor Transgression

When one is the Principal of an Alternative School, one often gets the teachers no one opts for or the baby teachers who are just starting their careers. My green babies turned out to be very good. Then, there were the others. My school was an alternative to expulsion for weapons possession. All my 6-12 grade babies were caught with a weapon in their respective school and sent to me via Supt. Hearing. I had one teacher who was to the manor born … monied and certainly not urban school material. This brings me to a story that the Principal isn’t terribly proud to relate. The teacher appeared before my desk of a late morning to insist that I “must suspend Willie because he used a cuss word in class.” My anger was swift. I said, “Are you f**king crazy? Willie, the weapon carrier, swore in your class and you want me to put him on the street because he said a naughty word? Go back to your class now!” We never had that issue come up again.