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CAIRO HIGH SCHOOL
1981 EGYPTI...FOOTNOTE |
If I were ever to write that book...
...one chapter would be devoted to the great soda can caper!
The new Cairo High School...
...when they finally installed the brand new carpeting.
And, before you stop me, I am aware that I have told this story somewhere else in the pages of CAT Tracks (...I think!)
Bears repeating...
The custodians who cleaned and maintained the carpeted pod area used rolling cloth containers...into which, they would dump the contents of a teacher's classrom trash can.
Well, horror of horrors, a certain teacher or teachers (whose identity or identities were never revealed) took a soda from the "Teacher's Lounge" to their classroom, drank part of it, and placed the remainder in their trash can. When the custodian enterered the classroom in the evening, he/she dumped the contents into the cloth container...whereupon the remaining soda leaked through said container and soiled the brand new carpet.
Well, the lion did roar...
...and not the friendly CAT version.
Soon to be departing for the Central Office, Principal R. Leo Verble was irate. And, truthfully, I can't say I blamed him. (I about had a heart attack when one of my favorite students put a big wad of chewing gum on the floor and intentionally smashed it into the carpet. I spent a hour after school on my hands and knees using ice and elbow grease to remove it.) I respect new things and take care to protect and preserve!
But...
Let's don't get silly about this!
First of all, the custodian knew which teacher was the offender. The liquid immediately goes through the cloth container. If he/she did not notice immediately, well, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery...simply follow the trail!
So...
R Leo Verble could have called the offending teacher to the privacy of his office and put her/him on notice...this shall not happen again. (I mean, it could well have been an accident. I know teachers are considered miscreants in this day and age, but I don't think for a second that someone would do that on purpose. Warn said teacher...then, if it happens again, write 'em up, third time is insubordination, fire 'em.)
Oh, but no!
R. Leo Verble was already an unhappy camper...not wanting to be "kicked upstairs" at the conclusion of the year.
The edict was issued...
...in writing and over the intercom.
All sodas were to be purchased and consumed in the "Teacher's Lounge". (The plaque on the lounge door sported a misplaced apostrophe that remains to this day.) No sodas were to be taken to the classroom!
This edict also applied to "the other office"...the office down the hall where the "Curriculum Director" and the guidance department were housed. This was the office where Julie Newell had been banished due to her being married the BIG BAD CAT. (Another chapter of the book that I will never write would tell the story the great parking space battle, along with the previous year's suggestion that Julie Newell be given a desk in the hallway of the old Cairo High School, midway between the main office and the office of the new "Curriculum Director". However, today's fractured fairy tale is about soda cans!)
Back to the story...
Teachers always get raked over the coals if they dare punish a whole class for the actions of a few. I have mixed feelings over that...due to the fact that when you cannot determine the offenders (students can be devious), withdrawal of privileges and the resultant peer pressure can be effective. However, it is always best to punish the offender directly.
As I said before...
...the custodian knew the offending teacher...the proof was lying in a puddle on the classroom floor...leaving a dripping "bread crumb" trail on the hallway floor tile clearly identifying the source.
So...
...nail the culprit, leave the other ADULTS alone.
Unfortunately, there was a pre-existing condition...bad blood between the teachers/staff and the main office.
Absent molehills, we can make a mountain out of soda cans.
Ron and Julie Newell enjoyed drinking an occasional soda during the work day. (Me...only before or after school or during my planning period, never during classtime. I never believed in the "rank has its privileges" concept.)
Let me say this...
...as a true soda lover, I did embrace the concept of "good to the last drop." By the time the custodian got to my room to empty the trash, any trace of remaining liquid would have already dried.
In short, I was not the miscreant that soiled the carpet.
I'll go you one better...
When the lion roared and issued his edict, I insured that I was not an offending party. My classroom had a water fountain right outside the door. When I finished my soda, I walked over to said fountain and washed out the soda can prior to depositing it in my classroom trash can. (Yes, I guess I could have walked it down to the "Teacher's Lounge" and deposited in the trash can there, but I found that to be beyond silly.
Cutting to the chase...
...because further details are fuzzy.
One morning I arrived at my classroom way before the beginning of school (about the only disadvantage that I can think of in being married to a school secretary who routinely put in ten-hour days.) Being a fairly observant person, I noticed that my classroom trash can was missing.
Well, I didn't even have time to wonder...
...a booming voice over the intercom: "Mr. Newell, report to the office...NOW!"
When I arrived in the Main Office, I was directed to the Assistant Principal's office (not even allowed to darken to doorstep of the Principal's Office.) When I walked through the door, I immediately noticed two things: The Building and Grounds Supervisor was standing next to a chair in the middle of the room. Setting on that chair was my missing classroom trash can...complete with yesterday's trash.
Whereupon, the lion entered the den...
He looked at me, motioned to the trashcan setting on the chair and said: "What is this?" Being a fairly literal person (when I wanna be), I responded: "It looks like my trash can. I wondered where it went." Well, that didn't go over very well if a red-faced lion is any indication.
The next question directed to me: "No, I mean inside the trash can." I took a step closer so that I could gaze deeply into my trash can and said: "Looks like trash."
Well, we eventually got down to the nitty gritty...that amongst the trash was an empty (washed out) soda can. When asked what it was doing in my trash can, I responded along the lines that an empty soda can is trash and that a trash can seemed a proper depository.
I honestly don't remember what was said next (as I was busy watching the Building and Grounds Supervisor trying desperately to stiffle a laugh.)
In the end, I was summoned to the new Superintendent's office to discuss the soda can crisis. Since we had yet to cross swords, the Superintendent just wanted the silly problem to go away. I agreed that I would dispose of my soda cans in a manner that would not incur the lion's wrath.
And that brings me to Dave Molinet!
I don't really remember Dave, except that he was one of what seemed like an endless cycle of one-year health teachers. If I recall correctly, he pretty much kept to himself and did not get involved in our pitched battles with the out-going administration.
However...
When the 1981-1982 School Year arrived, the secret rebellion was revealed.
The teacher who inherited Dave's classroom did as all such teachers do. You cull through what you find, determining what will be of use and what can be discarded (or placed in storage.) It's always nice if you can find old lesson plans and/or old tests...find out what your predecessor did, something that might work for you.
What better place to start than the filing cabinet!
Well...
When the teacher opened the top drawer of the 4-drawer filing cabinet, what did s/he find?
Yep...a drawer full of empty soda cans!
Opening the second drawer...more empty soda cans!!
Third and fourth drawers?
DITTO!!!
Not one lesson plan, nary a test paper.
Now why didn't I think of that?
Instead of the "circular file"...
...if I had only used the "rectangular four-drawer version".
Life would have been so much simpler...
...but not nearly as memorable!
