An official 'hearing'

I got to attend my first official (tape recorded) hearing. An outside person came in and had to receive 'official statements' in regards to an incident that took place between two of my students (though the incident occurred in another teacher's class). The student (Ricardo) had received 10 days suspension and the family was challenging that decision.

The situation: In math class two female students were arguing over a chair while a math test was being passed out. When Ricardo received his test he turned to them and asked them to be quiet (unsure what the tone or actual words used were). The girl (a student who is also in my 4th period class and who has a history of really not getting along w/Ricardo) got really angry and began yelling at him to stay out of her business, and she eventually walked over to him continuing to yell and began poking him and sticking her finger in his face. He eventually stood up and they began yelling at each other, without stopping/listening to the teacher. The director then walked in and broke up the fight telling the students to walk to her office. Ricardo turned and began walked to the front of the room, and at this point TaVon balled up her fists and began attempting to attack Ricardo rather wildly. The director stepped in between and got hit by TaVon, and Ricardo left the room and headed to the office. Both students received 10 days suspension.

Background: Both students have a history of 'being in each other's business' and it has been very hard to get them to stop. While it has not come to physical blows in my room, TaVon has thrown Ricardo's backpack across the room, and there is a general craziness between them that can be very very annoying. Now Ricardo is very smart and levelheaded and he uses these two abilities for 'evil' sometimes by pushing people's buttons who he knows are going to explode and possibly get in trouble while he won't. That being said, nothing he has ever done or said in my presence has warranted the outbursts that TaVon has had. She also has a history of completely unacceptable behavior and the director does not give her a harsh enough punishment. If a boy had done what TaVon had done in the incident above they probably would have been expelled. And the fact that they both got 10 days seems ridiculous to me.

The Hearing: Because the sentence was so harsh for Ricardo and right at the end of the advisory (which would probably affect his grades), his mom called for an official hearing to have the decision reviewed. Ms. Riley walked into my room that morning and asked if I would come in and be a witness, although I had not seen what had officially happened. She wanted me to be there to explain their history of bad relations. But the fact was that I disagreed w/the decision so I wasn't really sure what to do/say, because I didn't want to not back my boss, but I also did not agree w/what she did at all. So the arbiter came in and began asking everyone questions, and I basically didn't say anything because they had never actually fought in my room and that was all he wanted to know. In the end, Ricardo's sentence was brought down to 3 days. It seemed like there was a lot of animosity and stuff between the social worker who was there and Ms. Riley, though it was really the social worker's tone that was kind of uncalled for. But in the end I think Ms. Riley made a bad call, and that TaVon should potentially be expelled if her behavior doesn't change, because her behavior has gotten out of control and she needs to be somewhere else.

Anyways it was an interesting experience to be in an actual 'hearing.' Ricardo is one of my favorite students because he is very bright and someone who seems to love to learn for the sake of learning (to some extent) and is also an extremely motivated person who knows his goals are only attainable through hard work on many different fronts and is willing to put in that work. He is also very smart, scoring advanced on his many standardized tests. I want to help him w/the SATs, because I believe that if he gets a good score on a national scale, that he can go wherever he wants for college (combined w/his continued excellence in school and football). He also seems amenable to that help, so I will have to figure out how I can help him, maybe find a SAT prep course that he can take if he is willing with someone who actually knows what they are talking about.