By: Kat Garcia (Back To School)
The bell rang, 8am...the start of a new school year.
The classroom was full-20 students, all seniors in high school. Some chatted and laughed, some looked around choosing to remain quiet while observing the goings
-on around them. A few of the students had their heads down, sleeping on the desk (obviously not morning people).
Then there was Sydney, staring into one of the mirrors she kept in her purse with all her make-up, hair products, lotion and toothpaste. Right in front of everyone, she started adding more make-up to her eyes and then started primping her hair and sprayed it, getting it all over. Sydney loves to stare at herself and she was always fishing for compliments via stupid questions like "Does this make me look fat?" or "Can you tell i'm wearing make-up?"
This high school is in a very small town in Oklahoma that people rarely moved out of. It was a standard song kids sang when jumping rope, "Once an Okie, Always an Okie". While it was just a kid song, it was very true. A lot of the people in 'Okie' had been born there and they all grew up together.
Everyone knew what kind of person Sydney was. Sydney was very self absorbed. She could be (and was) very cruel. Pointing out others short-comings and then boasting about herself. It made her feel better about herself to point out how much better she was than other people.
"Welcome back to school everybody! Now let's have a seat and quiet down!" Mr. Douglas raised his voice, not a yell - but loud enough to gain everyone's attention.
Everyone got seated and it was quiet. Mr. Douglas' first words were,
"Sydney, put the make-up away."
"I have something in my eye, may I go to the restroom?" she requested sharply as she picked up her stuff and started toward the door before he could even answer. He said,
"Make it quick." He moved on to the rest of the class.
Sydney went into the restroom. She did have to go to the bathroom. After she went, she went over to the Mirror \ Sink area and began washing her hands, then put on lotion and cleaned her rings. As she was cleaning the rings, she decided to play with doing her make-up a little different. Lastly, she noticed she had some hair that was coming out of the styling she had done This prompted her to pull out the curling iron she carried around. She got back to class five minutes before it ended.
Mr. Douglas was not sure how to handle the issue. Everyone - students and staff knew what was going on, but was not sure how to resolve it. Without a resolution, the behavior continued until it surprisingly took care of itself.
One day Sydney was doing her usual visit to the bathroom. After her ritual of hands, lotion, rings, make-up and hair during Mr. Douglas she grabbed her stuff and ran back to class. As she walked in, you could see the attitude coming from her and then suddenly people started to smile and giggle. As Sydney continued to her desk, laughter. She looked around,wondering what was going on. They were pointing now, giggling more and more. Even Mr. Douglas let out a low and quiet laugh. She noticed that everyone was pointing and she looked down and sees nothing at first.
Then she saw it and suddenly it all made sense - why the were pointing, why they were laughing. When she had gone to the bathroom, she wasn't aware that the paper ring that goes on the toilet had stuck to her and was hanging out of her pants. She never hung out in the bathroom again.
The bell rang, 8am...the start of a new school year.
The classroom was full-20 students, all seniors in high school. Some chatted and laughed, some looked around choosing to remain quiet while observing the goings
-on around them. A few of the students had their heads down, sleeping on the desk (obviously not morning people).
Then there was Sydney, staring into one of the mirrors she kept in her purse with all her make-up, hair products, lotion and toothpaste. Right in front of everyone, she started adding more make-up to her eyes and then started primping her hair and sprayed it, getting it all over. Sydney loves to stare at herself and she was always fishing for compliments via stupid questions like "Does this make me look fat?" or "Can you tell i'm wearing make-up?"
This high school is in a very small town in Oklahoma that people rarely moved out of. It was a standard song kids sang when jumping rope, "Once an Okie, Always an Okie". While it was just a kid song, it was very true. A lot of the people in 'Okie' had been born there and they all grew up together.
Everyone knew what kind of person Sydney was. Sydney was very self absorbed. She could be (and was) very cruel. Pointing out others short-comings and then boasting about herself. It made her feel better about herself to point out how much better she was than other people.
"Welcome back to school everybody! Now let's have a seat and quiet down!" Mr. Douglas raised his voice, not a yell - but loud enough to gain everyone's attention.
Everyone got seated and it was quiet. Mr. Douglas' first words were,
"Sydney, put the make-up away."
"I have something in my eye, may I go to the restroom?" she requested sharply as she picked up her stuff and started toward the door before he could even answer. He said,
"Make it quick." He moved on to the rest of the class.
Sydney went into the restroom. She did have to go to the bathroom. After she went, she went over to the Mirror \ Sink area and began washing her hands, then put on lotion and cleaned her rings. As she was cleaning the rings, she decided to play with doing her make-up a little different. Lastly, she noticed she had some hair that was coming out of the styling she had done This prompted her to pull out the curling iron she carried around. She got back to class five minutes before it ended.
Mr. Douglas was not sure how to handle the issue. Everyone - students and staff knew what was going on, but was not sure how to resolve it. Without a resolution, the behavior continued until it surprisingly took care of itself.
One day Sydney was doing her usual visit to the bathroom. After her ritual of hands, lotion, rings, make-up and hair during Mr. Douglas she grabbed her stuff and ran back to class. As she walked in, you could see the attitude coming from her and then suddenly people started to smile and giggle. As Sydney continued to her desk, laughter. She looked around,wondering what was going on. They were pointing now, giggling more and more. Even Mr. Douglas let out a low and quiet laugh. She noticed that everyone was pointing and she looked down and sees nothing at first.
Then she saw it and suddenly it all made sense - why the were pointing, why they were laughing. When she had gone to the bathroom, she wasn't aware that the paper ring that goes on the toilet had stuck to her and was hanging out of her pants. She never hung out in the bathroom again.
