Class Clown

Once upon a time in a land not so far away, there lived a young and beautiful teacher (who also happened to be very humble). Her students were practically perfect in every way (simply because her resident motor mouth was absent on this particular day). They were working quietly on a brilliantly planned and implemented assignment (okay, who am I kidding . . . the kids were wired today and I had FINALLY got them settled down with mention of "homework") when suddenly chaos broke out. What could it be? A fire drill? A lock down? Perhaps they were serving fish nuggets in the cafeteria again? (That ALWAYS causes chaos, and usually disgust!) No, a student was trapped . . . in their chair. Yes, you read that right. He got himself stuck in a chair and was annoyingly pleased with himself.

It didn't happen in my room and it wasn't one of my homeroom students, but I got to be hall patrol to detour students past the crime scene because they all wanted to look in and laugh at the student and his predicament. I recently read a book with one of my reading groups called "Class Clown." The kid in the book got his head stuck in a chair at an assembly. I remember thinking I was glad that hadn't ever happened at my school. Well, as my team member said, in all his 30 years of teaching, he's NEVER had a student do this before.


He had somehow managed to slither his way into the hole underneath the back of the chair, but couldn't get himself back out. Therefore, the chair was stuck on his waist and he was stuck lying on his stomach with his legs sticking straight out. He managed to get on his feet, which was quite another interesting sight. My team member who had the class clown in his room during the aforementioned feat called the office to request the custodian's assistance in taking the chair apart. He said whoever answered the phone was laughing so hard, he thinks she fell off her chair. She wasn't stuck in it. The custodian came down the hall and immediately began to laugh. As the teachers in the situation, we were trying really hard NOT to laugh. The seat was unscrewed, the student was freed, and I went back to my classroom . . . to laugh!