The Daily News
Jade Goody, 1982-2009
1 So...Jade Goody walks into a bar...
2 Yeesh.
3 Quite a bar, evidently.
4 Too young. Too, too young.
5 Ah, so it goes.
6 I was all ready to complain about the fact that in the past ten minutes, I had stubbed my toe three separate times, and now this.
7 So it goes.
8 Moving on: Was that the Chill-on-the-Hill that seemed to have 1500 students absent on Friday?
9 A. Indeed it was.
10 Sometime around late afternoon last Thursday rumors began circulating that we were going to have someone come on campus and cause trouble.
11 The rumors stemmed from about three extraneous stories coupled with another couple of real stories, causing a wildfire rumor that we were in imminent danger.
12 It began with a "prank" in which someone had mailed some envelopes containing talcum powder to the front desk.
13 The envelopes did contain some threatening letters, but the envelopes had harmless talcum. I talked to the gal who received the letters and she thought someone thought someone was trying to tell her she needed deodorant.
14 Seriously. It was that obvious that the envelopes were harmless.
15 Regardless, the fire department, police department, FBI, and anyone within hearing distance were notified.
16 Meanwhile, in probably an unrelated incident, some guy poured salt on our lawn last weekend, burning a swastika in the lawn that is right in the middle of the school.
17 By Thursday, the lawn had begun dying, and the swastika started materializing. At around the same time, someone had cut down some skinny trees that were in the same area.
18 By Thursday night, stories began circulating that someone had robbed some store, stolen 100 weapons, and that the envelopes were the exact same amount as the chopped trees, and that blah blah blah...
19 Bottom line: someone texted someone who texted someone who texted someone and before we knew it, the whole school had mixed around three or four stories up, and by Friday morning, three random incidents turned into a major conspiracy.
20 My initial response was that it was all clearly rumor-mongering boushit, but still, Friday was a rather strange day. Despite logic dictating that a stupid rumor had gotten out of control, students, teachers, and staff stayed home on Friday.
21 I must say, it was one of the eeriest days I've ever encountered, even though I was 90 per cent sure that were the "rumors" real, we all would have been notified and the school would have been shut down. I worked at the top and I know that our administration would have that kind of integrity.
22 The deal is that nobody REALLY does know when some moron will do something goofy. I thought it best to go in and assure my students that they were going to be okay.
23 Friday morning saw a clear fear factor at the school, and many students and staff who showed up cried, held one another, and prayed in the morning. I went to several teachers' rooms to check to see that they were doing okay. Several were hugging and in tears. I tried to reassure anyone I could that we needed to stand tall and support the students who showed up.
24 I even turned my heater up a little to create a warm, welcoming climate in my room for my students.
25 They came in scared, but I locked the door, told them I would keep it locked, and for them to relax and enjoy a movie. They felt much better, and some even hugged me for keeping them safe. I offered my room as a place to feel safe at brunch and lunch, and by early afternoon, it was pretty evident that the entire thing was a story that had gotten way away from itself.
26 I went out with a number of staff members after school on Friday and we all enjoyed a nice afternoon relaxing and bonding. It felt really nice to bond with colleagues, and by Friday evening all was safe and sane once again.
27 I was asked all weekend what happened, and how did it happen and all the rest, but to me, the bottom line was that there wasn't much to the rumor to begin with. If there were any truth to it, names would have surely reached people, and the school would have been shut down.
28 The beauty of living in this age is that while things like that do happen, for the most part, someone would come forward with names.
29 This doesn't mean that there wasn't a shadow of a doubt in my mind, just that I thought the odds were ridiculously low that an incident would occur, and that the students who would attend would certainly need reassurance and support.
30 So that's the news.
31 Scary story.
32 But it certainly defines the times.
33 I'm going in today with the full intention of continuing lessons and moving forward. Schools and businesses nowadays have to face this sort of thing all the time, and allowing morons who create fear any attention or empowerment only serves to place everybody in fear. That can't be allowed to happen.
34 It simply can't.
35 Anyway, thanks to those of you who heard the news and contacted me. I'd love to boast that I wasn't scared, but I would also be lying.
36 So there you have it.
37 Anyway, be safe.
38 All a friend can say is ain't it a shame.
39 Peace.
~H~
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