I don't know how to begin writing this down. Two days detached, it seems surreal, like a dream, or an acquired memory from a long-forgotten movie. Like when your parents tell you a story about you as a child, and as you continue to hear the story you begin to believe that you actually own the memory. But it remains hazy, as if seen through the fog in a steam-filled shower before work.
Friday morning, I believed that my biggest problem was the fact that I had only had one cup of coffee before my first class at school and that I'd forgotten my computer's power cord at my apartment, thirty minutes away. I thought to myself, "This is not a good start to Friday." Luckily for me, I had a weekend planned with the hockey boys in Shenyang and fully expected to add to my stats sheet. My hockey playing career only started last spring and I hoped to lace up some skates for two or three more shifts with the Ice Dragons.
Again, as I think about how to actually go about telling the story I get stuck. I think about a million details that are irrelevant and even as you read these words, I'm fully aware that I'm having a hard time getting to the point. Thus, I'm going to write it in the simplest way possible. Just so you know, I'm fine and so is everyone else that was present on Friday morning.
A student, one of my students, pulled two knives on me at the end of a PE class on Friday morning.
I know this seems ridiculous and impossible to believe. However, it's true. I still have a hard time getting past the reality of it. I did not get hurt/injured. No students were hurt. The student was disarmed by a group of teachers in the gymnasium. He likewise was unhurt.
After a blow-up earlier in the class (he was asked to sit on the side after refusing to participate, and then subsequently left the gym and was found in the campus restaurant), I spent about 10 minutes speaking to him, calming him down (he was extremely upset), and gave him a choice to return to class or to return to the main campus and wait for our VP who was in a meeting. He chose to head back to campus so I watched him walk across the street, enter the teaching building, and I returned to my class. He returned to the gym about 15 minutes later. There were approximately 80 students in the gym (3 other classes were there), plus my students were in the adjoining ping-pong room. I was speaking to another student in the main gym area just as the period was winding down. He strode across the gym calmly and approached me and the other student. I asked him to wait nearby, finished my conversation, sent the one student back into the ping-pong room, and confronted the boy, asking him if he'd had a chance to talk to our VP. He then pulled two knives out of his pockets and screamed that he was going to kill me. For a split-second I had the urge to laugh, thinking of how absurd the whole thing was. However, after looking at his eyes, looking at the blades (shiny, sharp, brand new, one in each hand), I took a step back. He took a step toward me. He kept coming so I ran and he pursued me across the gym. I was able to get a badminton net between us. In the next few minutes of making sure the teachers understood the severity of what was happening, we tried to contact our VP/Principal with no luck. Another teacher intervened, the other remaining teachers moved students out of the gym, and I ran to the second floor to get our principal and VP. After getting them out of their meeting and returning to my own class to get them sequestered, I returned to the gym and the boy had been disarmed by two teachers, our VP and a number of the Chinese staff.
As I sit here reflecting on everything that happened, I think a thousand thoughts. And I'm sure you all have a million questions. Had I had problems with the student before? Well, yes, but it had little to do with me. He's a student who's extremely "young" emotionally. He has also, from what I can gather, been the victim of bullying. Some of this happened in my class and he had a blow-up a few weeks ago. I got him calmed down, told him that I'm here to talk and support him and promised him that if I ever heard about any incidents of bullying that I'd help him and take care of it. After calming him down and allowing him the option to speak to his homeroom teacher, I had a lengthy discussion with my class about bullying, respect, and working together. I talked to a few individuals in this class as well, making it very clear that bullying wouldn't be tolerated. This was weeks ago and there was nothing that I could see that made me think it was continuous or on-going. He didn't bring it up with me again.
Did I think the boy was dangerous? No. It's still hard for me to believe it happened. Where did he get the knives from? Likely some sort of regular market. The knives were more or less brand new paring knives with very sharp blades. Not big, but big enough.
And yes, I'm fine. I'm stressed, I'm a bit anxious about what my classes are going to be like on Monday morning, but yes, I'm okay. I don't know what's going to happen with the kid. I don't know what we, as a school, will do about this. I know that I'm not the only one who has experienced these sorts of things. And I know that I haven't given up hope in humanity. Not completely, anyway.
As a special word of thanks, to RS, RH, and DN, the other PE teachers in the gym with me Friday morning, you guys had my back and looked out for the kids. Thank you for that. Also thanks to all my coworkers and particularly to MM who has done everything possible to make me feel better since it happened.
On we walk.
T
