It was lunchtime. I was on playground duty. The day was hot and sultry and the kids were out of sorts as they grappled with the winning and losing of games.
Michael and Sam, two of my active students, appeared before me babbling to gain my attention and frantically selling me their version of an event that had occurred on the handball court.
Under this barrage of information I called for time out. Moments later I was searching for Brian who had apparently been hurt in a scuffle between himself and Michael.
Brian was in tears. A sheen of skin had been removed from his right knee and his left hand was slightly grazed. Michael was into his mantra of accidental cause — 'He tripped over my foot' — while Sam was stuttering in astonishment. Sam had seen Michael deliberately push Brian off the handball line.
I attended to Brian to make sure there were no broken bones or internal injuries. I asked Brian if he was alright now. He nodded. 'You feel better?' I added. Brian sniffed lightly and glanced up at me. I saw an innocence that troubled me briefly.
But I was in the centre of this teeming non-linear world, warding off forces of turmoil and chaos, striving to bring resolution to the incident between Michael and Brian; so I had to work hard and fast.
I asked who had done what and brought quick resolution. I brought peace and order. I found out exactly what happened and Michael was reprimanded and told to apologise to Brian and sent to think about what he had done. It was a small incident in the day to day running of a school. Good. All sorted.
Or was it? What questions had I asked? Had I brought a sense of justice to all parties? What had Brian said? The fact was Brian had said not a word. He was a puppet in the whole exercise. But he had spoken, through his distress. His eyes had said, 'You think this is okay. I am not tough enough, am I.'
But I had arbitrated for Brian and delivered a legal response and a consequence for Michael. This is an important step. I had to punish Michael to make sure he did not do it again. This imperative drove me. By making Michael face me (as the big authority figure) he would see the errors of his ways and desist from