81- Scissors

Josh’s tendency towards violence is getting worse. Today he went way beyond his usual pencil throwing, book slamming behavior… today Josh threatened to poke Robbie’s eyes out with a pair of scissors.
During a geometry lesson, I grouped my students into teams of four and had them cut out a special pattern from a piece of card stock that would later be folded to create a certain geometric shape. The goal of this exercise was to teach about three dimensional shapes and to help the kids learn to work as a team. The teams were responsible for assigning jobs. One of the jobs, The Cutter, required the use of scissors.
Robbie and Josh both wanted to be The Cutter. I watched out of the corner of my eye as they both grabbed for the pair of scissors. Robbie reached them first.
“I am The Cutter!” The wolverine announced.
“No way, Soapy Butt, I’m going to be The Cutter,” argued Josh.
I ignored the argument, and the insult, because I hoped that the boys would find a way to come to an agreement.
“Give me those damn scissors!” Josh grabbed the scissors out of Robbie’s hands.
“No!” Robbie resisted Josh’s grab.
In a split second, before I had time to run across the room to the boys, Josh had the scissors in his hand. He held the scissors in his fist like a weapon, so that each blade stuck out from between two of his knuckles.
By the time I reached their table, Josh had cornered Robbie. The psycho kid was holding the scissors so that the blades were pointed directly one inch away from each of Robbie’s eyes. “I am The Cutter. Say it! Say I am The Cutter or I’ll stab out your eyes!”
Josh made a punching motion with his scissored fist. Robbie flinched.
I must have actually screamed because the classroom grew silent and Josh jumped a little. I grabbed the kid by the back of his shirt and yanked him backwards, away from Robbie.
Josh resisted. He did not let go of the pair of scissors. “Let go of me,” he yelled.
I grabbed Josh’s wrist and tried to shake the scissors free. “Drop the scissors, Josh. Drop them.”
The students started to back away. Josh struggled against my grasp, fighting to get away from me. After several long minutes, he gave up and dropped the scissors.
I have never seen a kid look so angry. Josh’s face had turned bright red and he looked at me as if he were considering punching me. I was afraid.
“Josh, go to the office!” I tried to keep my voice strong, but I think my nervousness peeked through.
Josh remained frozen in his place, refusing to leave my classroom. I went to the phone and called the school secretary. I told her that I had a bad situation in my classroom and that I needed help.
Josh heard every word of my telephone conversation with the secretary, yet he still did not move. Within seconds, both Mr. Thorpe and The Intimidator were in my classroom. Without saying a word, each grabbed hold of one of Josh’s arms and dragged him, kicking and screaming from the room. We could hear the boy yelling all the way down the hallway.
My students were shaken up and I saw Robbie wipe one terrified tear from his cheek. I reassured them that Josh would not return to our classroom today. Kids are amazingly resilient; they easily fell back into doing the geometry assignment, but I did notice that Robbie no longer wanted to be The Cutter.
Mr. Thorpe came by during my planning period and had me write down exactly what had happened. He told me that they called Josh’s mother and had suspended the boy from school for the rest of the week.
The rest of the week?
I was hoping that he would get permanently expelled.