Call Brad Pitt/Edward Norton

With the advent of balmy weather, the students have let the warmth go to their heads. In the past three days, there was a massive arrest of six students from my school, multiple fights (including one in which a new student of mine was jumped with my bathroom pass in hand-- it was later returned to me, sigh). The jumpiness, jitteriness, love-bugginess, rudeness, threats, "playing the dozens" and spazzing out is reaching epic proportions. Miss Fellowette has, according to her students, "gone black" which means I've gotten meaner and tougher, but somehow it hasn't calmed things down. I sense a breaking point nearing, which means to me either a movie or an art project...

I am reading Down These Mean Streets, by Piri Thomas, hoping to do it with the chil'n next week, looking forward to the stability of a novel and the novelty of reading a "Ghetto" story that nonetheless has beautiful language, interesting themes, clear metaphors, etc.

Now, off to dinner with my delightful east side grandmother.