down the toilet...

Another middle school adventure:

One of my 6th graders, we'll call him C, is a character all to his own. He is sort of a loner and doesn't really care too much what others think. He is well behaved, loves to read, works hard, but he has a flare for the dramatic. Thankfully, he's different enough that the mean kids actually kind of think he's cool. He is honestly one of my favorite students.

A few weeks ago, we came back in the room after lunch and as the students were settling down into their seats, I noticed C didn't have his glasses on and he was banging his head against his desk! I walked over to him and realized he was really upset so I bent down to investigate. I couldn't really understand what he was saying because he was so upset (and he's difficult to understand on a good day).

I got him out in the hallway to pry a little deeper and managed to make something out about his glasses getting flushed down the toilet! I couldn't imagine how in the world this would happen and I still couldn't really understand what he was saying, so I walked him back to the bathroom to see for myself. Finally, he took me into the stall and demonstrated that he leaned over the toilet to flush and as he was standing back up, his glasses slipped off his face and fell into the flushing toilet! There was nothing he could do because it happened so fast! They were gone.

As a glasses-wearer for the last 20-some years, I took great empathy at the loss. I walked him over to the counselor's office so he could calm down and call home. He made it back to class and could see well enough to make it through the day. Thankfully, he had a backup pair at home and his mom was able to order a new pair the next day!