I began teaching 20 years ago at a majority-black public middle school. The behavior of the black students was so outrageous, it bordered on unbelievable. Their respect for authority and teachers was less than nothing. They would pull my hair to see if it was real, sometimes standing around me playing with my hair like animals performing grooming rituals. Other times, they would push their faces into my abdomen, take a deep breath, and comment on the way I smelled. I’ve even had students tell me they could smell my “coochie” and shove their hand between my legs from behind.
They stole anything that was left on the desk without a hint of shame. Once, I had my toddler’s toy cell phone on my desk because I was repairing the antenna that had broken off it. When class started and students filed into the room, the cell phone was instantly swept away. At the end of class, a black student came up to me, dropped the toy phone on my desk and demanded to know, “What’s this!?” He was angry that what he had stolen from me was not a real phone.
Even things of almost no value got stolen: one time a student pumped the entire contents of the lotion bottle on my desk into a plastic bag to take home. Theft increased in December, as the black students began their Christmas shopping at the expense of the teachers. Wallets, tablets, credit cards, and cash were all up for grabs if you carelessly left them in an unlocked location. Their penchant for stealing was matched by one for destruction. My car was vandalized in the school parking lot several times, and on occasion, students would draw on the back of my clothes with markers as I walked by their tables. ...
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