HIT LIST

Five years ago when I was student teaching, something kind of scary happened. A student, one who had a reputation for acting out and making threats, left his notebook behind. I thumbed through it and flipped the pages just to make sure that it belonged to the student that I assumed it did.

Sadly, when I turned the pages my thumb happened to stop on a page that had the phrase "Hit List" scribbled on the top of the page. There was a crude sketch of a bullet flying out of a gun. Underneath the heading was a list of people, some celebrities and some junior high students. My next course of action was to show it to the school administration. That student was then taken away "somewhere" and nobody saw him for the rest of the year.

Most teachers that knew about the incident didn't comment on my actions or the fate of the student. However, one teacher who was kind of sad to see the student go came up to me and asked, "Did you really have to flip through the notebook."

At the time, I didn't really know what to say. I had been working in schools for about six months, and I still wasn't quite sure about proper procedures and protocols. I've always had a lingering doubt that I should have respected the student's privacy and given him a little more autonomy. However, after reading about the massacre at Virginia Tech, I now have no regret.