called out

yesterday was the first day back at afterschool and we started off outside time with a boy pulling on a low hanging tree branch that caused another branch to come down and hit a girl in the face.

maybe.

i say maybe because i didnt see it but I have seen this girl get hit lightly in the shoulder with a small stick on a previous occasion and began crying and saying she got hit in the eye. and I said, "no you didnt. i was standing right in front of you." and she immediately stopped.

anyway, she was crying. I dismissed the group. she stopped crying.

the girl found the boy and demanded an apology to which the boy refused.

she came back to me and recounted how she had been denied an apology. And I said, using therapeutic language, that apologizing to her was probably something that was challenging for that boy and if she wanted one that it would probably be something that I would need to support him with.

and another girl near me goes, "how is a teacher making you apologize to someone supporting them?"

which is a pretty good call out. And I just so happened to be wearing my t-shirt from the therapeutic school and I said "hey! I worked at a therapeutic boarding school" and I pointed at my shirt, " I know what support is."

I don't know. we're both right. and also everyone is wrong. because the original conflict was crazy meets crazy anyway. one person completely oblivious to social norms and the other person clearly just using them to manipulate and control. and here I am in the middle trying to keep up appearances of authority and order.

 this is the truest picture of a society.