something in the water...

Damnit, it's only Tuesday and already I'm worn out. It's been one of those weeks (okay... two days... but still).

On Friday, Motor Boy (who, until that day, was my only perfect attendance in the class) was home sick with a "violent stomach flu." (Note to parents: "Stomach flu" is more than sufficient information. You don't need to specify the severity of the ailment with the addition of the word "violent." Just sayin', is all.) He walked into my room yesterday morning looking like death warmed over. He was pale, had dark circles under his eyes, and couldn't keep his eyes open. And he was burning up. I sent him to the office (we only have a nurse one day a week), and the secretary took his temp. It was close to 100 degrees. She called mom at work - not there. Called the house - left a message on the machine. Called the cell phone - it wasn't accepting calls. So she sent him back to class, in the hopes that mom would get the message and call back. I spent the remainder of the morning telling him to put his head down and rest. He did a little bit of work, but you could tell his heart wasn't in it. After lunch, I sent him back to the office, because I didn't know what else to do with him. The secretary called the emergency number - no one there could pick him up, and they didn't know how to get in touch with his mother. What kind of emergency contact is that??? So the poor child stayed in school all day, feeling completely miserable. That kind of thing infuriates me. What if it had been a real emergency? We would have had no way to get in touch with his mother.

Today he was back in school, but five others were out sick. Coincidence? Probably not. And there were two other kids who came to school sick. One was coughing up a storm... germs a-flyin'... Yikes. Time to up my vitamin dosage.

And in other news... I found out yesterday that one of my girls transferred. Her attendance has been spotty the past two weeks, and I was starting to worry. Apparently, mom has an abusive ex-boyfriend who is threatening her. Mom got scared and decided to move to a new apartment, and move the kids (a 5th grade boy and my 1st grader) to a different school. I guess she was afraid that he might track her down through the kids. No one got to say goodbye to the kids. I'm kinda bummed about that. I taught the boy when he was in 1st grade, and I've known the girl since she was three. What makes me even more sad is that this is not the first time those kids have been exposed to this kind of situation. Their father was very abusive to their mother, and the kids witnessed a lot of fighting, both physical and verbal. Then mom had another boyfriend who held a gun to her head. And now this. It breaks my heart that these children have seen so much abuse in their short lives.

Ugh.

It's been a rough week.