Fun Day!

Yesterday was the annual “Fun Day” year-end celebration at the middle school where I work. For the first time, it was an all day event instead of just a half day and included a talent show and two hours for yearbook distribution and signing.

A little extra thrill was added to this day when the librarian came at 7:00 am with a list of students whose yearbooks would be withheld because they had outstanding books and/or fines. I gasped in horror when she said that 305 of our 660 students were listed. Usually this list is plastered all over the school for the week before yearbook distribution so that kids will take care of it, but we have a new librarian this year. She sent out bills to students and we made announcements, but many kids did not pay much attention. We quickly decided to change the rules a bit, eliminating the names of students who had turned in books but still owed fines. Students were calling home, turning in and paying for books all morning, and by 11:00 our list was cut to about 200 students, still far too many.

At 12:30 just as students were returning to classrooms in preparation for the exciting yearbook release, my principal radioed me from the cafeteria, “Call 911, call 911”. With my fingers poised over the telephone, I waited a few seconds for more information then asked what I should tell them. I could just imagine calling 911, they say “What is your emergency” and I would say, “I’m at Memorial Middle School and my principal told me to call you. Hold on a minute until I find out why, and please don't ever tell my husband that I made this uninformed call that I'm probably going to have to cancel in a minute.” I’ve called 911 from school before, and those dispatchers expect you to know why you are calling. I've also been told to call 911 and had the order rescinded before I could get to a telephone. Anyway, she radioed back that a student with a heart condition had passed out in the cafeteria and was not breathing, and they were starting mouth to mouth. I instantly got the word to 911, telling them to pull up in the bus lane and come in the open cafeteria door. My principal came flying over and made an announcement for students to stay in the classrooms until released because we had a student with a medical emergency. A teacher raced in and shouted, “Call West Albany and tell them we need their defibrillator.” I called, they said they would send it over, no questions asked. Our Health Room person was gone and the binder with the student’s medical protocol was in her locked office in a locked cabinet. I grabbed my key ring to open the door and went to the safe to get the cabinet key. It was not hanging on its hook! I desperately started shuffling through the papers that had collected on my desk through the hectic day, digging in my desk drawers, searching my pockets. Helen was on the phone trying to reach a parent, who no longer worked at the number listed in our information. I caught her eye asking if she knew where the key was. She had it in her hand because she was headed back there when our boss told her to call the parent. I arrived in the cafeteria with the protocol at the same time the paramedics got there and handed it over to them. The student was breathing and somewhat alert by then. He was able to tell us where his mother currently worked.

In the middle of all this, I get a call from a staff member asking me if we are on lockdown. No, we aren't on an official lockdown but everyone is supposed to stay in their classrooms because we need to keep kids away from the cafeteria. He says "Well, I was just wondering because your office aides are out in the hall delivering messages." I was well aware of what my office aides were doing, I sent them out because this is the only time all day when students were in their regular classrooms for me to get messages to them. It was also better to have them out of the office with all the urgent activity going on there. The only good thing about this situation was that it kept the kids in the classrooms long enough for all the messages to get delivered. I had to exert a lot of effort to be nice to this annoying person and did not even ask him to please limit his calls to the office to emergencies only right now because I was a little too busy to answer ridiculous questions.

We finally reached the mom as the paramedics were leaving our building with the student en route to the hospital. He was released about 3:30 that afternoon, doing fine. Kudos to our teachers and staff who kept their heads and did everything that needed to be done.

After that little adrenaline rush, the students were released to pick up their yearbooks. Our office quickly filled up with angry students wondering why their yearbooks weren’t out there. I made repeated loud announcements to check the list outside the door and go to the library if their name was on it. In spite of that, many students remained in the office. I found their names on the list and sent them to the library. Many of the students had paid that morning and had a receipt, so we gave them their yearbooks. Many others soon returned with a note from the librarian to release their yearbook. Others thought they had purchased a yearbook at the beginning of the year but actually hadn’t. I pulled their receipts to show them they had only paid the activity fee, which also happens to be $10. In spite of repeated announcements to check the yearbook list which I posted two months ago, they had never bothered to look. Other students came to buy a yearbook at the last minute. It was so much fun. I believe they call it bedlam.

Two of the adult children of my co-worker had stopped by to visit just after the ambulance left, one of them visiting from out of state. Great timing. They seemed to be entertained by all the Fun. The 40-year-old son made himself comfortable in her chair. After the hubbub of students died down a bit and phones were ringing, I found my co-worker was at my desk answering the phone and I had to awkwardly reach over the many plants at her desk to answer a phone call. I gently mentioned to her son that it would be helpful to us if he would let his mother have her chair. I didn’t say anything like, “Hello, have you noticed we are extremely busy here and she doesn’t have a lot of time to visit you right now?” I am constantly aware that I must work very hard not to let my natural assertiveness wipe out all tactfulness. I often fail.

(When my 16-year-old son visits, he makes himself at home in my chair if it’s vacant, but he knows enough to leap right out of it when I head toward it! It is well known that I am not nearly as nice as my co-worker. He managed to get through the crowd and come behind the counter to check in when he got out of school at 1:15, was smart enough to say “hi and good-bye, I’m out of here!”)

One of my good friends signed in to volunteer first thing that morning and I asked her if she was up for a girl’s night out. She was. I sent out emails to a couple more friends, and three of us were able to go out to Los Dos Amigos where we enjoyed a delicious dinner and sat talking and laughing until the restaurant closed at 11:00. It was just what I needed to end my Fun Day!