Unfiltered Story #280309

I work with 7 to 10 year old children with special needs. One of the children (Student #1) is a perfect example of the classic phrase “his mouth moves faster than his brain”. He knows that he’s not supposed to swear, but when he gets angry or excited, he says the first thing that pops into his head, no matter what it is.

We’re outside on the school playground one day. There is a road that runs past the school, with a drainage ditch between the road and the playground. It rained the last two days, so the drainage ditch is completely flooded.

Student #1: “Look over there, Mr. (my name). Why is the ditch full of water?”

Me: “Remember how it was raining all day yesterday and the day before? It would be bad if the water from the road went onto the playground, so they built that ditch to collect the water.”

Student #1: “Oh, so ALL the water from the road goes into the ditch?”

Student #2 (who likes to annoy people because she thinks it’s fun): “THAT’S A BAD WORD!”

Before I can even think of a response to Student #2 poking her nose in where it doesn’t belong…

Student #1 (at the absolute top of his voice): “I said DITCH, not B*TCH!”

All I could do was bury my head in my hands and hope that none of the kids noticed me laughing my head off at Student #1’s response. After I calmed down, I gently reminded Student #1 that that was not a good word to use, even if he was angry, and remind Student #2 that she shouldn’t barge in on other people’s conversations just to cause trouble.