Wow.
Today has been a very interesting day. And yes, it's a new moon.
We had two fights at school today, apparently (I missed most of that, thank goodness), and not only were they pretty fierce fistfights, but there were
girls involved. I know that's probably not all that unusual, but still, it always shocks me. AND one of the girls attacked a teacher after he broke up the fight. Sheesh!
Aside from that lovely behavior, there was an awful lot of crappy attitude from people who had no cause to be rude. All three gave me the opportunity to "flex my bitch muscle", which I don't feel the need to do too often. I'm generally very nice to people. Until they push me.
The first was a lady who called asking for records on a student who she said attended our school several years ago. They'd already asked, a couple of months ago, and we'd already answered that the student was never actually ours. Our school frequently gets confused with another school in another part of Florida, usually by these same agencies. Anyway, I told her that for any student information, she was going to have to send me a request with the parent's signature on it. She argued that they'd already sent that (a couple of months ago). I told her that yes, we got that request and responded to it, and that if the response was that he wasn't our student, that meant we had already looked, and we have no record of him. I told her that it was possible the student actually had been at that other school, and maybe she should check there. She was getting pretty snotty at this point, and was really resisting the simple task of faxing the request, but insisted it was our school, because that's what the mother said (the parents always seem to only write one word of the school name, and when you look up that name, you get a list that includes our school, which they always seem to pick - and let me tell you, usually the parents filling out these forms aren't that bright to begin with). So I told her if she was sure it was our school, she was welcome to send us the request again, and we would look again, but she wasn't getting any information whatsoever until I had the request in front of me. She didn't like that very much, but tough.
So she finally sent it, I got it, looked the student up (again) in the only databases he could possibly show up in, and there was absolutely no record of him, in any of our District's schools.
I typed up a note telling her so (to fax - no way I was calling this chick - I'd had enough of her), and suggested she try the other school, and included the contact information for that, and also told her she was welcome to contact our student services department at the District offices, and gave her that contact information as well. Then I called them to let them know they might hear from her, and why.
The second one was a man who came in asking to see one of our students. We had no information saying that he was authorized to do so, so we made him wait while we contacted the guardian, who told us if it was a specific person (and they gave us the name), then it was fine, but only that person. So we checked, and this guy wasn't that person, so we told him he couldn't see the student. He went all huffy at that, and wanted to see the Principal, who happened to be unavailable at the time, and he was being a butt to the girl who works at the desk, so I walked up, and I was actually sort of dressed up today (doesnt' happen often), so he asked me if I was the Principal. I said no, but held out my hand for his ID. I checked it, and he wasn't the "allowed" guy, so I told him that we had been told by the guardian to allow a certain person to see the student, but that person wasn't him, so he was going to have to leave, and if he wanted to see the student, he'd need to contact the guardian ahead of time to arrange it, and the guardian would let us know. He didn't like it, but he left.
The third one was actually a school District employee, who really should have known better, and I
know they've been advised of school security rules, but they don't like to remember them if it's not convenient to them. He came into the office and asked if we had a vending machine he could get to. I told him yes, but that he'd need to sign in since it required walking in the halls where the students were, and then I could show him where the machine was. He got huffy at that, and grumped that he'd just get a drink of water then. I said that's fine, and he bitched that "no other school makes me do that" (sign in), which isn't true, because we all get the same rules from the District, and even the Superintendent signs in when he comes to our school. I'd had enough of people and their 'tudes by then, so I just told him "Those are the rules - deal with it."
Thank goodness there wasn't a fourth bad attitude person for me today, because that one might have been hit. I was done after number three. And really with all three of these buttheads today, I was just doing my job, but I'm usually much sweeter about it. I just don't like people trying to give me shit for doing what I'm supposed to do. And I react to it, and don't back down.
So, how was
your day? :-D
