I'm a dorkfish...

Well, I must be dedicated to my job to stick with it after what happened this past Thursday. I find it minorly ironic, since I had just posted last week about what an awful day I had that Monday. Then, the first day I was back to work after my two days off, this happens. I'm sure most of the people who read my blog with any regularity know a little bit about this already, since most of you are family, and I'm sure Mom or Dad updated you, but here's the story straight from the horse's mouth. (With pictures!!)

So, I was working Thursday, with my normal crazy kids in Cabin B and it really was a pretty good day for the most part. I was working with a staff member that the kids respect and listen to, and no big incidents had happened. It was after dinner and well into quiet/study time with the kids and for some reason one of the kids decided that he wanted to act out. I don't remember what upset him in the first place, but he certainly was looking for attention. He was running around and cursing loudly at people and basically doing what most kids do when they act out at the ARK. Then he ran into staff area and grabbed the reciever off of the phone and threw it down from the second floor balcony. That didn't make a big enough smash for him I guess, so he got the rest of the $300 phone and proceeded to smash that as well.

This is where it gets interesting. We had just gotten a new kid into our cabin that day and his bed was being set up in one of the rooms, so there were a couple of bed slats sitting out. So Acting Out Kid decided to grab two of the slats and use them to act out. He was pounding on the walls and railings and floors. There was a third staff member in the cabin at the time working on handing meds out, since I'm not med certified. He was most certainly the most senior member in the cabin, so when he pulled me aside and told me that either I or the other guy I was working with should put Acting Out Kid in a small child restraint, I figured he knew what he was talking about. So, the other staff member approached the kid from one side, and naturally he ran to the other side of the cabin, where I was waiting to head him off. I asked him to put down the slats, and tried to talk him into behaving. He threw down one of the slats, so I figured he was starting to deescalate. Then he started to run into the area where the meds were, so I grabbed his arm (the one that didn't have the board in it). He then proceeded to turn around and swing the board right at my face. Boy he sure connected. The next thing I knew when I looked up, I had 10 kids surrouding me with terrified looks on their face, and Acting Out Kid was in a full team restraint on the floor with the other two staff members.

Now keep in mind, most of these kids have what we call "Mommy issues." Either they've been abused by their moms, or they've seen their moms being abused by their dads or other male figures, or they've been abandoned by their moms. So, for them, to see me get hit brought up a lot of their issues and scared them a lot. At that point, I didn't really have time to freak out or take time for myself to react, I had to make sure the other ten kids in the cabin were ok and tell them that I was ok. The first question most of them asked was "Are you going to quit now? You're never going to come back now aren't you??" And then, of course, all ten of them wanted to jump the kid that hit me, and beat him up. So, I was in the cabin for a good 15/20 minutes after it happened helping to keep the rest of the kids calm before a supervisor could show up and give me some time to myself.

So, from there, I went to the building on campus where the supervisors have their offices, and walked right into a bunch of paperwork. The guy who trained me to do restraints met me there and got me some ice and some ibuprofin. From there, I had to fill out what is called a First Injury Report, for workers comp. I wasn't hurt very seriously at all, just a swollen lip, and a scratch on my upper lip, but the supervisors wanted to make sure that if I had to go to the doctor, workers comp would cover it. Then, the cops got called. The supervisors all highly advised me to press charges, so I decided that I would. The cop showed up, and the kid who wapped me showed up and the cop had a long talk with him. We were all hoping for second degree assault, but the cop who came didn't want to take the kid down to the station to fingerprint him and book him, so he knocked it down to third degree assault. Kind of sucks in my opinion, because I think the kid would have learned a lot from spending a night in jail. Oh well. Then, I had to fill out an incident report about what happened. All in all, it was a crummy crummy night.

As luck would have it, Thursday was the first day that Mom and Dad were in town visiting, so when I called them after work to have them come over to our apartment, I had to explain what happened right away. Naturally Mom was not happy at all about it. Marvin wasn't too thrilled to see what happened when I walked in the door either. So a picture like this resulted (it's not very flattering, watch out!):

If any of you have seen the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, you may recognize this creature from a Bill Engvall joke. I look like a Dorkfish!!! Marvin and I decided that the best way to deal with this is to make a big joke out of it. I got some funny looks from the unsuspecting public after this happened, but since it was Halloween, I was hoping most of them just assumed it was a very subtle Halloween costume. "I'm a zombie!"

I went back to work the next day, on the advice of my supervisors. They wanted to make sure that the boys didn't see me as a weak woman who would just lay down and take it when I get hit. (Which is another reason that I pressed charges against this kid). Luckily they let me work in a different cabin that night, so I didn't have to deal with the kid that hit me.

Yesterday was my first day back in Cabin B, and thankfully, it went really really well. No incidents at all. And surprisingly, the rest of the kids seem to have more respect for me after this happened. Maybe they see it as a sign of toughness that I came back. Maybe because I pressed charges they see that I'm not going to stand for behavior like that. I don't know. But at least some good has come out of this.

*Whew* what a post. Sorry this has gotten so long. Hopefully next time I"ll have some good news!