To any 7th grade teacher: If you pulled 7th-grade me into your meeting lounge to announce that for forging my mom's signature, you were sending me to OSS, how would you react if I acted excited that I was going to take a break from my para by not seeing her during my suspension?
If you thought I was bluffing, how would you "call that bluff?"
If I looked at ISS and OSS through a more optimistic lens than I did in 7th grade, since I hated nothing more that year than to be seen having anything to do with my para in plain sight of other students, I would've embraced ISS (in-school suspension) by being like "At least my para and I are alone together in a secluded room, where no other student can see us."
And I would've embraced OSS (out-of-school suspension) by being like "At least I get to take a break from Mrs. (para's surname) when I'm away from school because she NEVER makes me think happy thoughts!"
Because she was barely tolerable during the first few weeks of the year when my para was just in the backs of my classes. At least I could pass her off to other middle-schoolers as just some mere "roaming teacher-aide." (Yes, some did ask about her.)
Then I couldn't tolerate being seen with her anymore when she forced me to sit next to her at one of the two-person tables in Science class.
And I forged Mom's signature for some school form that we had to have parents sign because in that time of the Fall, I could still have my para not come to my next class if I did EVERYTHING right, and I thought that included by not forgetting to have my parents sign a form. I had forgotten to have Mom sign it, so in a very desperate bid to have my para stop showing up for my classes, I signed her name for her.
Eventually, my forgery got found out. That's why the 7th grade teaching team suspended me out of school.
So to those of you on a 7th grade teaching team, as soon as you announced to 7th-grade me that I'm going to be in OSS soon for committing forgery, how would you have reacted if I had said this?:
"OH WOW, so you all are giving me a break from being around Mrs. (para's surname?) I need to stay away from her as much as possible and NOT be seen with her by any other kid as much as possible so this is like a gift from Heaven! My para NEVER gives me happy thoughts; I think happy thoughts when she's out of my sight, so thank you all so much!"
If you thought I was bluffing, how would you "call" that bluff?
If you didn't think it was a bluff, what would you say or do then?
Would you have changed my OSS to ISS to punish me by making me continue to see my para? (I would've embraced ISS almost as well because at least when my para and I are alone in a secluded ISS room where no other student sees us, I'd feel relieved that no other students were seeing me have anything to do with her right then.)
Or what would you then do differently?
I wanted to reinvent myself as a "cool, hip popular kid" who could be friends with everybody just so I wouldn't have bullies to worry about anymore. I didn't know much else about what it took to be popular when I was 12, but I assumed it was by first either getting rid of my para, or making her as inconspicuous to the other kids as possible. I assumed there was no such thing as a "popular special-needs student" nor a "popular para'd student." (I've since learned on another one of my threads at r/SpecialEd and r/Paraprofessional that it IS possible to have special needs and/or a para, and still be popular. I REALLY needed Reddit in 7th grade.)
If 7th-grade me saw my adult self through some kind of crystal ball reading (are 7th graders ever allowed to visit psychics?), he'd be rather proud of adult-me for now having over 1,000 friends. (As of last count on Facebook, I have 1,003 friends. I'm satisfied about having at least 1,000 so I'm not looking to add anymore friends in the meantime.)
But back to the original subject: What alternative punishments would you / your team have come up with if I looked at OSS with a rosy lens: as a break from seeing my para, and ISS as a relief from being seen having anything to do with my para by any other student? Because after all, I wanted to hide, from every last student, the fact that I had anything to do with her by just passing her off to them as a mere "roaming teacher-aide."
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