It's not even noon yet and I think that the best I can do is an abbreviated recap of today's events.
This morning we had an assembly. The 3rd year student's conduct was so reprehensible that I don't even no where to start. They refuse to listen to anyone. Outside of Inoue Sensei, who made all of the 1st years sit seiza and meditate on their own conduct afterwards, I can't say that I see other teacher's really doing much. I tried but apparently the new retalitation is to make fun of my Japanese and pretend that they can't understand. Without backup it is kind of hard to do anything. I confiscated the captain of the tennis team, who I like's, shoes after he was joking around and throwing them. I told him if he got his other two friends together and apoligized to the vice-principal who was speaking, I would give them back. He was an asshole, but he tried. Nakamura, from the bike incident, refused and acted like he was going to hit me.
I went to 3-3, not for my usual class but as an ALT. As the class ended a bunch of boys gathered in the hall and began kicking and punching the door and the running away. This is their new favorite trick for classes that I am in. I opened the door and said stop. "Why are you saying it was me!?! What is your problem." I told them that I wasn't accusing anyone but that we were still having class. They also began throwing stuff out the windows. I asked them to stop and they set in on me. I walked back into class. Okada, probably, punched the door and then ducked in the next room. I went back out. Okada emerged. "Dai stop. Himeda stop." They looked indignent. "Okada stop." He exploded. "Why are you saying my name!?! Who the fuck are you. Get out of my face." The strange thing was that the boys gathered like a weird gang. I hung back as Hamanka Sensei came back and asked what was going on. Okada proceeded to insult me with the help of his crew. I wasn't going to get involved until he kept referring to me as "Aitsu" and "Omae." In Japanese these are very disrespectful thing to call someone. "Who is 'omae?'" I asked. He freaked out on me and got in my face. Here is where I may be a little at fault, but I did it on purpose. I will also say that Hamanaka Sensei is a woman and I think that bears a lot on our different approaches to the situation that I will go into later and why she thinks I was wrong. Okada tried to grab me. His whole crew was cheering him on. "That's funny, I said. "You are talking tough now but last time all you could do was cry and say 'It hurts! It hurts!" Like a little baby
(this is where I left off writing yesterday as I got interrupted)
After I said that, and I was deliberately being insulting, Okada exploded and grabbed me and started shouting how he was going to kill me. Needless to say, everyone was out in the hall. Same as last time I grabbed him in the basic judo clinch and slammed him into the nearest corner. He kept yelling and grabbing my shirt. Hamanaka Sensei then tried to get between us telling us to stop. I felt then, and I feel more so now, that this just makes things worse. I understand that you think you are breaking up a fight by stepping in the middle of it, but from my position, it just made everything worse. If I have Okada pinned in a corner, he can't do anything but yell and then cry. I have control of the situation. If someone is in the middle there is distance enough for me to be punched and Okada can move around holding onto my shirt, spinning me around. I can't do anything to control it. So I put my hand sin the air and said, "It's all you now Okada. It's just you. And I looked as bored as I actually was. I wish I could get across from them how far it is from scary for me to be in a fight. I don't say that brazenly. But it would be like if your hobby was running marathons and someone said, "I dare you to do a 5k!" Right? It isn't really a big deal.
So this went on for a bit, to the enjoyment of the 3rd year boys. Finally, Nakamura, grabbed Okada's arm and pulled him off. Okada went on to destroy a locker that brooms are kept in by punching and kicking it. Kumura, a complete dumbass with a dyed blonde mullet and whose sole claim to fame is that his grandad is Yakuza was cheering him on and banging on the locker. I pulled him off and he laughed. I backed off as I felt I was only making Okada crazier. Himeda said "See, he's running away." I asked what he was talking about and he responded with the Himeda mantra, "Why are you talking to me?" I Okada screamed and yelled and was finally led downstairs. I went down another way and told the vice-principal that he should probably go check things out. I went up behind him but accidentally ran into Okada coming down the stairs with Nakamura. He started screaming again.
Hamanaka came back to the office and told me I was wrong for bringing up last week. I can understand her point, but I completely disagree with it. Okada has been setting this up as a trap because he is embarassed about losing to me. If he can set it up where he can yell and scream and someone can come break it up then he can tell all his friends how bad he is. If I throw him in a corner and let him freak out until he cries, then at least him and his friends are scared of me. Which they need to be.
Later, the old PE teacher got him to settle down enough for us to talk. Okada said very quietly that he wouldn't try to fight me anymore. I told him that the reason I was on him all of the time is that the other kids look to him as a leader. They are weak and his personality is very strong. If he does something bad, everyone follows so I have to jump on him first. It has nothing to do with not liking him. I told him that I understood being embarassed and that I don't like it when he is rude with me. That is a way of being embarassed too. I told him that I understood that it was scary when an adult grabs you and tosses you around but that I have to to stop him from throwing any punches which would require us to call the police. I told him that I wanted him to come and have a fun class, but that if he didn't want to, I understood. I told him that he didn't have to like English, but that some people wanted to study and he shouldn't get in their way.
He said that he understood but I don't know. I shook his bandaged hand and told him I would try harder if he would. He turned and ran out the door.
On my way home, two 2nd year girls had an autistic girl trapped and wouldn't let her leave. They were throwing torn up paper at her and saying, "You are so gross. Are you laughing or smiling?" I asked what they were doing. "Why do you care? Who are you? Go away!" I asked if they were friends with this girl, why they were talking to her. "Sure! We're friends." I don't really know the 2nd years so I went to get another teacher. When we came back, they had run off. The autistic girl said that they had been spitting on her and wouldn't let her leave.
I'll talk about today later.
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