It's always something...

... So I got a text message on my phone at 6:43 this morning from another teacher. It read: "There is no school for kids today but teachers need to go. Has anyone called you? There was vandalism on the buses and at the high school."

Turns out that someone (who is anyone's guess at this point) completely vandalized the buses (slashing tires, sealing locks with glue, etc.) and the high school last night. Thus, the buses aren't running, and students got the day off. I called most of my students' families to let them know, and all but 2 had already heard the news by the time I called. Ugh.

I also called all the teachers whose numbers I have. Of course, my lovely 4th grade teacher buddy got mad... But not about the vandalism, about the fact that we have to be at school today! "That's bull----!" she'd exclaimed. "We have snow days we never used. We shouldn't have to be there!" I, on the other hand, was more upset about the problem at hand. It's so frustrating that just a small group of people can ruin things for a large population. There are about 700 students who were affected by this today. Not fair.

We have our own speculations about who the culprit(s) is (are) at this point. The art teacher and I think it may be my crazy ex-roommate, the former tech guy. Maybe he was acting out of rage of being fired after he went to jail? (He's out now, which is not fun for me!!) Perhaps, the 4th grade teacher purported, it is the parent of one of her students. Obviously, no one's sure right now, but hopefully we'll know at some point. However, they still don't know who vandalized my room several months ago (remember that?). My room had been badly vandalized one day when I had a sub.

Come on, people. There are like 4 days of school left. 3 1/2, actually, but who's counting? Did they *really* have to do this right now? In another district (Scottsdale, a suburb of Phoenix), I heard that last week, all the windshields of the buses in the district were smashed. That was about 100 buses- big bucks and a LOT of work. What the heck? I mean, really.

Anyway, I need to head to school for a staff meeting, and then have a whole workday. I'm actually glad to have the time to get stuff done, even though the circumstances kind of suck. Hope you all have a better day!