The Chiho Explosion

Now that the election is over I can get back to my real mission; documenting these nutty teenagers!

Wednesday after the bunkasai I was sitting in the office, at the computer, following up on election coverage when 1-3's resident time-bomb, Chiho, stormed in, grabbed the phone and began screaming, "Let me use the phone! I am going to use the phone!" It would be hard to describe the quality of her voice to those who have never spent a long period of time in an aviary or maybe a concrete pit dedicated to some of the lower primates. She has the strange tonal inflections, infectious in this neighborhood, that make panic seem like poise and rob all utterances of their gravity, leaving them with only their urgency. She kicked things, punched things and broke things while a loose circle of teachers told her that they needed to talk to her and she needed to calm down before she could use the phone. She stormed out of the office, kicking things in the hallway and screaming going down towards the locked doors of the gym and working her way back to the office. Being a member of the 1st year contingent, I ducked out to see if I could help. My main concern was her breaking something and hurting herself. As she made another circle from the locked gym back towards the office, I stood in her way to try to get her to slow down and stop trying to break things. She began shoving me in the stomach yelling, "Get out of here Gaijin! Gaijin!" I just said sleepily, "Hai, hai." Suehiro sensei told her to stop being insulting. In the middle of shoving me she explained hysterically, "Gaijin just mean gaikokujin so why does anyone care!" Her face redder than usual she ran back to the office. I gave up and then she took of downstairs. I decided to keep a loose watch on things and try to keep her from jumping a fence or breaking a window. She tried to go to softball practice but Nomura sensei stopped her. I knew she would go around the back of the gym so I went and waited. She showed up and I let her walk past me but kept an eye on her. Nomura sensei asked me to do him a favor and go lock up his classroom. It was between this that the "Yes we can!" video was taking. I found out, while locking up the room, that the reason she was angry is because they were trying to talk to her about the classroom window that was broken on Wednesday. Making sure the windows were locked, Chiho approached from the front of the school followed by Nomura sensei and Inoue sensei. I gave up caring and went back to the office. Not too much later Chiho came back, kicking the door and screaming. About 20 minutes had gone by. No one could really make out what she was yelling except that she needed to call her mom and then yelling something about her birthday 2 weeks ago and that Sakabe is her softball coach. Now a crowd of teachers, mostly female, were in the hallway with her. She had now gone beyond a normal freakout and was trying to break or wrestle anything in her path. She latched her claws into the sliding door. She was crying and her face had turned purple. All teachers not involved in restraining her were cowering in the office looking at each other puzzled. 45 minutes had passed. And some point she collapsed and was dragged to the conference room were she continued to scream. Her parents came to the school around 10pm, Chiho had since been sent home. They decreed, angrily, that the school was responsible as they couldn't control the students. Can't control their children. Their children who will scream and taunt you if you caution them. Their children who explode or run away if you get close to them. Their children who will do as much damage as they can before they are stopped. Their children who will scream "Violence! Violence! I'll call the police and tell my parents!" If you have to restrain them. Their children who will cheer on any other student who acts the same. We can't control them. I see.