The “Incident”

I think pretty much everyone has heard the story by now but I am going to record it here anyway for posterity. Some day when Nate is getting married or having kids of his own I will pull this out and remind him of it.

Yesterday was the first day of the second week of kindergarten. When I got home from picking up the kids at the bus stop there was a message on my answering machine from Nate’s teacher saying she needed to talk to me about an “incident” that happened with him and a couple of other little boys.

When he got off the bus he had looked sad and mumbled something about getting in trouble for throwing a brick. I was picturing one of those cardboard box toy bricks that teachers often have in the classroom or maybe a lego brick.

I tried calling the school but couldn’t get through but about 2 minutes later the teacher tried calling me again. I answered the phone and after a short exchange she told me that Nate and two other little boys had thrown bricks at a shed at recess and broken the windows. My response was “are you kidding me?!” and she told me that no she wasn’t but she wished she was.

I guess someone had left a pile of bricks (real ones) out by the play equipment. They weren’t supposed to be there but they were and apparently the temptation was more than three 5 year old boys could handle. The teacher heard the glass break and then turned around just in time to see the third brick leaving Nate’s hand. In her words the other boys were looking at her like “deer caught in the headlights”. She didn't seem to think that Nate was the ring leader or anything but he did make a bad choice and so they all had to be punished.

These three boys were given an hour of in school suspension and phone calls home to their parents. They also had to write letters of apology. I asked if I needed to contact the school about paying for the glass but the teacher told me that the school would take care of it. I guess I should have figured that this is Nate we are talking about and it was bound to happen sooner rather than later. As you can see, we have started the school year off with a bang (or a tinkle, as of broken glass, if you prefer). I’m just praying that nothing like this happens again any time soon.

I realize it isn’t funny that my child destroyed someone else’s property but I have alternated between laughing and crying about this incident. In the end I think it’s better to laugh about the situation in general (just not within ear shot of Nate).