Head Injuries (Not Mine) Jar Memories (Mine)

I work with 11 different classes and 5 different classes at the moment. That's around 200 students whom I have gotten to know in the past month I have been here and I can say I love them all. Even the ones I hate love, because no matter what I'm still learning. Learning so much my head feels like it's going to explode.

So when I see one of these students lying in the doorway of his classroom, hands on his head with too much blood seeping between his fingers and onto the floor, I'm a bit concerned.

This happened two days ago and I was walking with Mrs. B to 9th grade English. We've turned the corner and walking to the end of the hall where I see two things immidiately: Katie (names have been changed) crying hysterically and Johnny bleeding an impressive amount.

Turns out Johnny thought it would be a good idea to jump into the room and consequently picked the worst spot to do it: right underneath the doorjam (you could still see blood where he hit). At first I thought he had cracked his skull, but upon further inspection it was just a gash. Mrs. B was in perfect control and sent specific students to do a job.

Ben, go to the secretary's office to call an ambulance.
Laura, go get some paper towels.
Mel, go to the teacher's lounge and ask for Mr. S and get the first aid kit.

The perfect example of calm, cool, and professional Mrs. B put everyone at ease immidiately. She stayed with Johnny the whole time, even after the rest of the class was put into another room to stay out of the way. The pool of blood around Johnny's head was growing so much we had to scoot away and, even though I knew I should have been scared, I wasn't. He was conscious, he was talking, he was laughing. Dizzy, but laughing.

But Katie wasn't laughing. Katie was crying as if she had personally caused harm to Johnny and the guilt was so powerful it was being pumped out of her body through tears and snot and hiccups. No one wanted to speak English, of course, so I stayed quiet and stayed next to her, rubbing her back and trying to calm her down. It didn't really work.

Katie's reaction reminded me so much of mine when I accidently hit my Mom in the head with a golf club.

(Background: Mother's day sometime in high school. Mom has taken me, my sister, my aunt, uncle, little cousin, and grandmother to a driving range. I am doing very poorly, despite my Mother's patience and tutoring. I thought she had backed away from me, but upon swinging my club and missing the ball, I feel it connet with something very real and solid. I turn around to see my Mom standing behind me with a pained expression on my face, eyes closed.

She opens her eyes and looks at me, saying "I'm fine." Almost immidiately blood starts pouring from her scalp. I react instantly and do two things: 1) put my hands on the wound to stop the bleeding and 2)start crying so hard I was sure I was going to pass out from a mixture of fear, shock, guilt, and love. But she's a nurse and my aunt and grandmother knew what to do. She was fine, but by the end of the ordereal her face and shirt were covered in blood, as were my hands. My mom actually wanted me to go to the hospital to get looked at, mainly because I couldn't stop crying or trying to get the blood off of me-- to the point I was scrubbing my hands raw).

But Johnny was fine and Katie couldn't see that. Mrs. B said Katie reacted this way to everything-- very emotionally, she meant. After Johnny was taken by the paramedics (he really was fine and walked on his own, the bleeding having finally stopped) Mrs. B talked to the students about what happened. I'm glad she switched to English because I really wanted to be a part the discussion. 'If anyone is feeling dizzy or sick please tell me,' she said. 'What just happened is a big deal and I understand if you want to talk about it, but I think it would be better to try and get some work done, to take our minds off of it.'

But she got the students to work, even after something like that. I feel very lucky to be working with Mrs. B so much. She's not afriad to bust some chops if someone is making her mad, but she's got this great relationship with all her students. She sets the standards high and expects them to match it, which they appreciate even if they don't say it outright.