What a letdown

Issue #1 today:
I have a 7th grade student I'll call N'awlins Boy (as in New Orleans--his family were victims of Hurricane Katrina), because that's where he's from. He has a sweet disposition and a very thick New Orleans accent. Anywho, he started out the year an average student: he came to class and did his work. However, as the year progressed, he slowly stopped doing both of those things. Eventually, he was in class maybe once a week. We found out he was outsmarting the system. Apparently if a student is out more than 9 days in a row and they are unexcused, then he is automatically withdrawn. So, he'd be out 9 days exactly. And then he'd come back for a day or two. Then he'd be out again. And when he came to class, I felt like I was always playing Catch-Up with him. It got to the point where I just didn't bother telling N'awlins Boy what he missed, because I knew he wouldn't be at school long enough to retain it or actually turn any work in. I guess the attendance issue got so bad that his parents got a letter warning them of the danger of them getting in trouble for not bringing him to school. Well, then he started coming. And I've seen him in class probably 8 out of the last 10 days. He wasn't getting a lot done, but at least he was sitting in a desk and perhaps absorbing a thing or two. But unfortunately, his nonchalant attitude had started rubbing off another one of my boys and together they didn't get much accomplished, besides chatting across the room to each other. Yesterday, I warned my entire class (about 10 minutes before the bell), that if they didn't have their vocabulary assignment finished, they would be coming in at lunch to finish it, because I had given them plenty of time. Quite a few students kicked it into gear and got it done just in time. N'awlins Boy, however, continued to work at a snail's pace. So, I handed him a Lunch Detention and guess what? He didn't show. So, today, I told him that he now had 2 Lunch Detentions (today and tomorrow) and if he didn't show, it would end up being ASD. Well, guess what? He didn't show. AGAIN. So I wrote him an ASD and as protocol, called home. As I am beginning to explain to Mom why he was written up, she stops me and says, "It doesn't really matter, because I am disenrolling him at this moment. I'm putting him in private school." Okay. That's weird. N'awlins Boy did stop by my class later today to get his final grade and he didn't say much. I asked why he was switching schools, but he said he didn't want to talk about it. If it's because they think he won't get harassed about not coming to school somewhere else, they are in for a big surprise. It's just sad, because he has potential. But if no one at home finds it important to be in school, then he doesn't have much of a chance.

Issue #2:
My day went pretty well (excluding Issue #1), and even my last block was being pretty good (partially because I was short like 10 kids, because of a few being sick and it was a track meet). Except for when it was time to pass up journals. In my class, we do journals everyday, and instead of 30 kids bringing journals back up to the crate in the front of the room, I have the person in the front of the row take them up. It works better and it's organized. No one has really complained about it. I switch the seating chart around enough, that no one is in the front for very long. And they've only had their current seats for about two weeks. Well, Hormone Boy sits in the front of one of the rows. And today, he decides he doesn't want to take up the journals. He tosses them on the floor and just sits there. I ask him what the deal is, and he responds with something along the lines that he doesn't think he should have to take anyone else's journal up. And that he didn't ask to be put in the front. I tell him I don't care if he wants to be in the front, and that it is his responsibility. He says (get this--this just kills me!) that he's going to go home and tell his mom that he doesn't think he should be responsible for anyone else's stuff. So what? I hope he tells his mom, and I hope she laughs. We're in this class as a team and we all have to help each other out once in awhile. I tell him that others put his journal away before and he says he doesn't care. It slowly escalates to a bigger deal, to which he eventually tosses the journals into the crate with defiance, and I send him to the office. To which he sits there for the remainder of the period, and no one talks to him. He just sat there and then headed off to go home when the last bell rang. I talked to the vice principal after school and she said that suspending him wouldn't help (because he wants to be home alone) and nothing else works. Okay, but what about the fact that he's distracting the learning of the other students and he's disrespectful to me constantly and he's refusing to do what he's asked to do?? I don't know what's going to happen, but I really don't want to spend the next 3 1/2 weeks with him and I in a battle. I've heard that his 2 older brothers that attended our school never made it to the last day of school, because they ended up suspended the last week. I guess Hormone Boy just wants to follow in their footsteps. I wish some of my students had better role models...