Betrayed

The Book Fair is in town...or I should say, in my library. It's a hectic week, and I'm wearing 2 hats. 1) ultra-super-dedicated librarian, running my library to a T, keeping things orderly, helping students, researching new book titles... 2) PATT (our version of the PTO) board member, the organization that sponsors the Book Fair in my library.

So between running regular classes, I'm also running the book fair, and much to my dismay, the volunteer list to help out has dwindled dramatically! So there are basically 3 or 4 of us running everything. But that's not the point of my post tonight.

I have a few students who come in religiously. And by that, I mean 5 or 6 times a day. I really develop a relationship with these students. Some are the braniac all-A students, some are the remedial reading students who check out books 3 grade levels below theirs.

A couple weeks ago, 2 of my girls were taking a reading test on the computer when I caught them cheating. Wow...really? How could they do that to me? They're good girls, or so I thought them to be. It really bothered me. I still have trouble looking them in the eye. They took our relationship for granted and cheated right in front of my face. So they're not allowed to take any more tests in the library. And they don't venture in much anymore to check out books either.

Today it happened again. I was watching another student browse the book fair and then she was gone. I heard a noise in another part of the library and saw she was there looking at books. Another adult in the library whispered to me that I should keep an eye on her, thinking she took something from the book fair and stashed it somewhere in the library to come back for later. So she came up to the circulation desk and I said, "didn't you have a package with you a few minutes ago?" She said "huh?" So I asked her again, only to have her open the side of her jacket and pull out a $10 electronics toy. I asked, "did you have anything else?" To again have her open the other side of her jacket and pull out another one.

Man...this is where I feel so naive. I can't believe she'd do that. I know she's an "iffy" student, an be a handful, a little bit of trouble, but never thought she'd betray me. I've given her a little extra leeway in the library, a few more"liberties." To have this. So she's not allowed in anymore without a chaperone. And she got suspended, and they're calling in the police to file a report. All this for a 9 year old.

The other sad part is, she knew what she was doing. She almost got away with it, so she must've learned it somewhere.