Not my JOB

In one of my first years teaching, a student set his classroom on fire. The teacher had just completed a science lab with the class. The class was then headed to PE. The student asked the teacher if he could get his jacket and returned to the room unaccompanied. While in the class, he took the lighter the teacher had used, poured some of the rubbing alcohol that was used in the experiment all over a couple of book bags, and then set them on fire. A janitor spotted the smoke and we evacuated the building.

The principal was on a field trip to Barrier Island (long before cell phone days) and the Assistant Principal was in court dealing with an issue we had had earlier in the year. The secretary handed everything over to a staff member who did not have a teaching position. I mean, someone, needed to be in charge of what was going on during a cold January day with almost 900 kids and over 100 faculty members outside. I’ll never forget that staff member looking at me and saying, “I didn’t sign up for this. Not my job.”

Luckily for us our PE teacher took charge. She told everyone where to go and what to do. She handled things. Remember there were no cell phones to call and orchestrate help. She worked with the teachers, she handled the firemen. Once we were able to go back into the school, she moved 6 classrooms for the rest of the day, and probably a whole lot of other stuff I didn’t know about. She just did it. She did it because it needed to get done to keep the students safe that day.

On Thursday afternoon as I was walking home. (Yes, I could not make it all the way to my house because of downed trees). I was thinking about the day's events and my mind rolled back to that day at EP Todd. The words of that faculty member “I didn’t sign up for this. Not my job” rang in my head. I praised God that I didn’t see that on my staff Thursday. I saw people standing in the rain helping kids into cars. I saw teachers running to the computer lab to comfort 1^st graders who were stuck in there rather than with their teacher. I saw staff members making a makeshift lunch. I saw teachers holding children who were scared even when they were scared as well. I saw teachers making kids laugh. I saw teachers staying in a building when all they needed and wanted to do was to go get their own children and check on their own homes. I saw my AP more concerned about the safety of getting every student into a car than the fact that his own car had been destroyed by a fallen tree.

There are so many parts of this job of education that are not listed on a job description. No one ever told me I would have to clean up vomit, be thrown up on, or change clothes of a student who had explosive diarrhea. No one ever told me I would hold a student’s fearful hand as they are being removed from their parent’s custody to parts and people unknown with the heavy weight of knowing that while I did the right thing I was the one that made the call to DSS. No one ever told me that I would have to listen to a student detail the sexual abuse at the hands of her father. No one ever told me that I would watch Tic Tok videos into the night trying to untangle a discipline issue. No one ever told me that I would have to figure out what was compost and what is not compost. No one ever told me that I would have more meetings that a CFO. No one ever told me that I would stay awake at night worrying about some of my kids. No one ever told me that I would confuse CVC and CVS. No one ever told me that I would secretly love when a kid calls me Mom or that when they come back and see me the pride I feel could make the hardest of hearts soften. It is not my job.

So thank you for not doing your job. It makes the world of difference.