This is why, when I saw Tye'Naisha completely ignoring her Math exercise this morning so she could cut sheets of white paper into small strips, I chose to simply look the other way. As I've already written, she can be rather difficult to handle at times, and I knew that any attempt to discipline her would result in a defiant outburst that would undoubtedly disrupt the other students, each of whom were working quietly at their desks at the time. Besides, she's one of my best students, and I have her desk deliberately tucked away in a corner of the classroom that makes it impossible for her peers to see what she's up to. The decision to ignore her was a relatively easy one to make, but proved regrettable.
About an hour later, it came time for us to make our morning trip down the hallway to the boys' and girls' rooms. While stationed outside the restrooms, doing my best to keep my students in a quiet line while they waited for their classmates to finish up, I realized that the girls were taking an unusually long time to leave their bathroom. When they finally began to emerge, most of them were conspicuously trying to conceal something on their arms, and attempting to suppress a fit of giggling. Then Tye'Naisha walked out, head held high and arms outstretched, and slowly spun around so her classmates could see what she had done while in the bathroom. The students erupted in raucous laughter, and heads soon poked out of every door in the hallway to see what my class had done this time.
As it turns out, Tye'Naisha had not been cutting up sheets of normal white paper. Over the weekend, she had somehow managed to get her hands on a pile of papers bearing a vast array of temporary tattoos - the kind you apply to your skin by pressing a wet paper towel against the back of it - and had spent the entirety of her morning cutting out the individual tattoos so she could share them with her girl classmates while in the bathroom. To her credit, it was an ambitious and bold plan, carefully orchestrated and flawlessly executed right under my nose. To make matters worse, these tattoos were not exactly something one could purchase in a Disney store. She had applied roughly 15 to each arm, creating veritable sleeves of ink that ranged thematically from "tasteless" to "overtly sexual." Running the length of one forearm was an Afroed vixen in a bikini, and her other wrist was now graced with the words "Sugar Baby."
I examined the other girls, and was dismayed to see that not all of them had demonstrated Tye'Naisha's restraint, and had in fact applied their tattoos to their faces and necks. Shy, quiet Denisha sported a pair of puckered lips on her forehead, and N'Dea's neck was now adorned with a set of wings, against which was superimposed the script "Hood Angel." I silently walked the class back to our room, sent Tye'Naisha to the office, and attempted to continue the Math lesson as if nothing had happened. It was 9:45 on Monday morning, and I was ready for the weekend.
*This is an apparent source of pride to my female students, who not only wear homemade shirts emblazoned with the word "Diva," but also often identify themselves on tests and quizzes as such (e.g. "Iyana aka Queen Diva aka Miss Priss Priss"). I fully expect this to be a problem in June, when we take our state-mandated standardized tests.
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