Night Of The Living Brat-The Pilot

In order to simplify things, I will give kids fictitious names rather than just describe them in each blog. I’ll keep the same names to identify them and link to other posts involving them, just to make things more interesting for you, the reader.

One of the hazards of working at night is that I work alone on a dorm, and it’s great as long as nothing bad happens, but occasionally kids decide to act out.  My response can determine whether it ends quickly or chaos ensues.

Several months ago, when I began working on the particular dorm I usually work, it seemed like almost every night a couple kids would be lying in wait to cause chaos. Second shift would walk out for the night, and within minutes two kids would pop out of their rooms, teaming up and trying to get the rest of the kids awake to join them.  I had to take swift and drastic measures to stop the ringleader in his tracks consistently for about a month before the boys learned they weren’t going to get away with it on my shift. Oh, they kept it up with the guy who works the rest of the week, but my nights became relatively calm.

Of course it couldn’t last forever.  Now a new cast of characters have begun trying to start the same kind of cycle. This will be the first in a series I’ll present under the heading, “Night Of The Living Brat.”

Jimmy ,Josiah, and Juan

I’m used to seeing either Jimmy or Juan awake when I arrive on shift, and normally neither are a problem. Usually Juan will be quiet in his room until he finally drifts off to sleep.  Jimmy, who I’ve mentioned in past posts, can be hyper and a smartass, but is normally pretty easy to handle when there are no other kids up.  However, this night, add a third to the mix and boil.

Josiah and Jimmy were roommates. Normally staff separates them at bedtime until one is asleep because they feed off of each other's behavior and keep each other awake.  When I arrived, both Jimmy and Josiah were in their room awake, and both seemed hyper.  It only got worse when the previous shift staff left. They both began getting louder, and after I had prompted them a few times I asked Josiah to bring his mattress out and sleep in the common area at least until Jimmy went to sleep.

Josiah was compliant, but was also continuing to encourage Jimmy, who was being even more silly and loud. Jimmy came out to use the restroom, and around the same time Juan came out of his room and asked to use the restroom.  When they came out of their respective restrooms for paper towel after washing their hands, Jimmy was being silly and began to shake his hands off. Unfortunately, Juan was too close and Jimmy splashed some unrinsed soap into his eyes.

After the initial shock, and after recovering from the sting, Juan ran after Jimmy and tackled him. I pulled him off the much smaller boy and escorted him back to his room. I told all three boys that unless they stopped and settled down right then they would spend the equivalent time they acted up sitting out from activities in the morning.  None of the three responded immediately and continued escalating.

It was around this time that a 2^nd shift staff from the adjoining dorm came over to see if I needed some assistance before he left.  He proceeded to give his opinion on what I should do with Jimmy (who was the most extreme).  I told him I was handling it and he could go. But the damage had been done. He had only succeeded in taking Jimmy from being merely hyper and mischievous to angry and openly defiant-which was exactly why I just wanted that staff to leave. 

Meanwhile, Juan had settled down and was staying in his room, and Josiah continued laughing at Jimmy’s behavior.  Fortunately, reality hit him when I told him how much time he already owed me in the morning and suggested he not  continue to accrue time.  

This left Jimmy, who was now yelling very sexually inappropriate things, and me, who was simply frustrated at this time-with him, but mostly with my co-worker.  Now I was the one who proceeded to escalate the situation, making smartass retorts to Jimmy’s remarks.

I checked in once more with Juan and Josiah, who were now both cooperative, and then I went into Jimmy’s room.  I put my hands on both of his shoulders, turned him toward me so I could speak directly to him, and very firmly told him “That’s enough. You’re done for the night.” Surprisingly, that stopped him. I then apologized for my own unkind and disrespectful comments I made to him when I was frustrated a few minutes before. I told him that I had been frustrated, but that there was no excuse for me acting like that. Jimmy in turn apologized as well and accepted what his consequences were.

I could have really made that situation much worse. Fortunately I was able to recognize my own mistakes and own up to him. All in all it turned into a good teachable moment, and though I wish I had handled it better, I’m glad for how it ended up.