But Miss, I only asked to go to the bathroom!

Poor Fernando. He was summoned to see his probation officer during my class today. I told him go and if we are not here we will be in the library. He was gone for a while and yet showed up before we left for the Library.

The minute we got to the Library he asked to use the restroom. I told him no, there were only 10 minutes left in the school day. He continued to ask. The answer remained, no.

This led to an 8 minute conversation about him hassling me to get his way and why he does this. I asked if he did this to his mother. He said he doesn't deal with his mother. I asked him if he lived with his mother, to which he responded that he did. I asked what he does when she says no to him. He says he doesn't ask her for anything.

I paused and thought for a minute. Then I said "you don't like following rules." He said rules don't matter. I said, well that is why you have a probation officer. Then the discussion took a turn to how school rules and laws are similar. And I repeated, "you don't like to follow rules." And how was that working for him.

He, somewhere in the midst of this conversation told me he asks nothing from his mother. He buys his own clothes and things (and yet he does not have a job). I asked him about how he gets money. And, he told me I shouldn't ask him that. This went on and on for the entire 10 minutes. Neither of us ever used anything but a calm tone and we were completely listening to one another.

I do think he thought he would wear me down and I would eventually yell at him or something. I told him about my father and that he came to California because he didn't want to do anything illegal or work in a steel mill. He wanted a better life for himself and his family. I told him I appreciated all the sacrifices my father made so I could have a different life. And that an education is important.

So this is 10 minutes in my day. Probably the best 10 minutes of my day. At the end as the bell rang, he said, "But Miss, I only asked to go to the bathroom." I smiled and replied, "this was not about you asking to go to the bathroom."

He smiled. My parting words were, "have a good afternoon sweetie and stay out of trouble." He smiled and waved.