Lunch Duty

Sept 6 -- I had lunch duty today.  I have it once every five days, thank God.  It is probably one of my least favorite duties because you are supposed to stand around with your arms crossed looking all serious and strict for the whole time watching for kids who might throw food at each other.  (But they mostly don't. Mostly they just try to ignore the teachers who are standing around trying to look tough with their arms crossed.)  Another responsibility is looking for kids who are stealing food.  This duty is quite intense;  it requires the utmost skill and nerves of steel.  For example, one time I had to discipline a girl who was eating the pickle slice off of her hot lunch tray while she waited for her friend to get a sandwich.  It was all very dramatic and Hawaii 5 - 0.  I had to flash my badge and then read her her rights.  haha.  Seriously though, when I told the student dean (school disciplinarian) that I thought telling the girl she couldn't eat her pickle was a bit ummm, over the top,  he was totally serious.  "Oh they are not supposed to eat their food until they pay and leave the servery."  I was totally freaked.  I mean, I do that all the time when I make a sandwich.  I always have to take a bite even before I put the Miracle Whip away...  but I digress.

So today, there was a dramatic and startling discovery after the first lunch wave was over.  On one of the tables, it was suddenly discovered that someone had written "Hail Satan" on the table.  There was a large pair of initials next to the text.  A teacher walked by and said, "Oh, I know who this is!" and she told us who wrote it.  Geez.  So then it got intense.  One of the teachers on lunch duty with me went to find the dean who was busy disciplining some kid for some other infraction so he sent the teacher back to the lunch room with a rag, a cleaning spray and a phone to photograph the graffiti.  This would have been all very official except there was a  glitch -- by the time she got back to the lunchroom, another teacher and I (the newbie crew) had already cleaned off the table.  (we didn't know when she would come back and kids in the next lunch wave wanted to sit there!)   It was all very exciting and dramatic.  I told the teacher we should bring in a Ouiji board and play on the table...

I swear there is just too much excitement in the teaching profession.   I am simply worn out from the drama load.   Good thing I was wearing my gold cross today.