Burned Out

My first year teaching in Las Vegas a kid took a swing at me because I told him to stop kicking the girl curled up in a ball on the floor. My car was vandalized. I was threatened physically, and a 7th grader threatened to shoot me because I told him to sit down. Students started a fire in the classroom trash can. I had to stop lap dances and craps games in the classroom. Somehow, I remained an inner city middle school teacher for eight years, as I watched education as we know it in the United States continue to decline. This is my story.