Okay, I officially nominate school monitors for most un-appreciated (in proportion to how hard they work) people on the planet. I made a point of keeping tabs on one of them today, just out of curiosity. Last week he wore a pedometer and told me he’d walked seven miles in his eight hour shift. So today I paid attention to what all he did.
Trips to the portables (little trailer-park-type additions to our school out on the back forty) to escort misbehaving students–18. Trips upstairs for same, 7. Trips to unlock classrooms so forgetful students could get their backpack/folder/lunch money, 5. High-school students run off campus, 6. Students located from among 200+ of their fellows so a parent could pick their kid up during lunchtime, 3. Trips out to the soccer field to get kids so their parents could pick them up during PE, 4. Times hunting down students who would rather spend forty-five minutes in the bathroom or under a ramp than go to class, 3. Times running to break up a fight, 2. Times sworn at by a parent who thinks if the other kid mouthed off, their kid should be allowed to smear a child half their size into the pavement, 1. But it was a doozy!
Are you seeing a pattern here? These folks work their butts off. And I mean that literally, our monitors are the most fit people you’re going to find without looking pretty damn hard. They’re also patient and caring and willing and even eager. They chase stray dogs, stray kids, and strangers wandering our campus, they unlock classrooms and gates and bikes and bathrooms, they listen and they hug and they help.
During lunch, Carlos brought a sixth-grader into the office. He’d found the boy curled up on the ground crying. I shamelessly eavesdropped.
“So what happened?” Carlos asked.
“Nothin’,” student responded.
Carlos: “Where are your shoes?”
Student: “Dunno.”
Call this my salute. I think I’d have strangled the little turkey long before I got to the bottom of things. Turns out he was being taunted, lost his temper, and kicked his shoes off at the person. Carlos got the young man his shoes and a talk with the counselor about how he could have handled that better, then brought his tormentor to justice.
Monitors deserve medals. And combat pay.