Unfiltered Story #32577

It’s Friday in the fall, which means the last half hour of school is set aside for the weekly pep rally to support the football team. In my 8th period class, after the band is dismissed to go get their instruments and set up, I’m left with four students.

Student: “Miss, you can check yourself out of school when you’re 18, right?”

Coincidentally, the school secretary happens to drop by my room to talk to me about a student’s incomplete grade.

Me: “Ask her.”

Student: “How old do you have to be to check yourself out?”

Secretary: “How old will you be when you graduate? You can’t check yourself out without a parent phone call.”

The secretary leaves after we settle the grade. The student asks to go to the bathroom, and since there’s four kids left in my class, I see no reason not to let him. Ten minutes later, I realize he’s not back. He’s still not back when we leave for the pep rally. I don’t see him in the student section at the pep rally.

Me: “I had a student go AWOL on me.”

Principal: “Okay. Send me an email after this so I don’t forget on Monday.”

Amazingly, a few minutes before the end of the pep rally – thirty minutes after I let him go to the bathroom – I see the kid walking in with the principal right behind him.

Principal: “He was in the potty this whole time. So he says, anyway.”