Marianna's Mother's Decision, Fiona, Paperwork

Marianna's Mother's decision finally came in yesterday afternoon. She has decided to retain her, no word on testing or not however. Interesting. She has also promised to bring Marianna back to Alma De La Rosa. I don't think she was planning on getting back to us however. She picked Marianna up from school early on Thursday and I asked Janice, the admin. assistant who came to get her out of class to ask her mother if she had a "letter" for me. Twenty minutes later, Sr. Callejo called me out of class to discuss situation. The letter also states that Marianna will not be back for last week of school. (Grr. I hate it when parents do this, it looks really bad on our attendance reports that are sent to the state.) But at least we have a plan for her for next year.

Fiona will be coming back to ADLR next year. For awhile her mother said that she was going to have to go to a city middle school if we had to leave our current location. It seems like she has relented however, which is very good news. I would have been so sad to see her go after these two years. I'm going to pass my email to her anyway, just in case her mother changes her mind at the last second.

Cosmo had his last day of in school suspension yesterday. That morning Sr. Callejo buzzed into my room to ask if he could be let out early because he had done all his work and had behaved well for Janice. I said that I didn't think that was fair to all the kids who had served all of their suspension time well (like Denise and Marianna and Allen.) Cosmo is always saying that he doesn't think I'm fair, that I treat the girls better than the boys (wonder why? umm...the girls rarely have to be told to do anything twice) So I sat down directly across from him and got right in his face and said in a low tone, "This is an example of me being 100 percent fair. Did I ever let anyone else out of in school suspension early? No, I did not. It would not be fair if I let you out." He grudgingly agreed but I think he was still pissed about it.

I've realized the last few times that he has been that angry, that he looks like an angry gangsta, like someone off of law and order. Like someone who feels like not only the person he disagrees with, but the whole world is set against him. Not just an angry kid pissed off because he's sick of being a kid. He looks like an angry gangsta. It takes me a second to remember that its still a child I'm looking at (a child that is bigger than me, but a child none the less.) He's so smart and so caring, I really hope that side wins out as he continues to grow.