Because of the construction, etc we have started having a rat problem. This is not the lab type rats, these are field rats on steroids that will give the wharf rats in NYC a smack down. 
They have been in the library but we haven't been able to get them.
So I come in today and have a meeting with a PRS (pregancy related services nurse) and we are interrupted but the kids are good and say they will come back. We finish up. Then some kids that are friends of a run away come in and try to tell me about their friend. They are as worried as I am and this kid is abused so our first concern is that she is safe. I have been on the phone with CPS every day for the last 4 days on this one.
As I am ready to let the girls out I look over at the window heating grate. There are all these chocolate covered cookies lying about. Oh someone must have left me a treat I said. I take a closer look and see claw marks and bite marks. I pull up a piece of plastic that was once a zip lock bag. From the weight of all the cookies and the pilfered baggie-that had to be a roid rat.
"They may have to cancel the cooking class in here this Friday" I said. The girls cracked up. "Nurse you're so crazy" they said as they left-promising me that they would try to talk to their friend and get her to contact us. 
I called our police officer to the clinic. Well, I never call him to the clinic so he rushed over. I told him he had to see this and I wanted to swear out a warrant to have the rat arrested. 
He just thinks I have lost my ever loving mind but says he will get the plant operator in.
Plant operator comes in and views the mess 
He sets out some sticky traps and promises to check them before I get to school tomorrow. I told him those cookies weren't mine it was a moveable feast and they partied in the clinic last night. You know, the windows, the moonlight, the aroma diffuser.....
Then I get my shy petite little 6th grader. His uncle that was addicted to drugs was released from prison. He has not gotten treatment and has given this multi-generational family all kinds of grief. The student wears this god awful skull on a chain necklace. I ask him the other day why he wore it. He said it was his protection. I guess when you are small and in the 6th grade and you wrestle with demons and monsters, you need all the help you can get.
So he tells me that they had to call the cops last night, his Uncle took the keys to the car but not the car. It didn't matter, his cousins still couldn't get a ride to school and missed school this morning. He said he had to call the cops because his Uncle was beating his Grandmother out on the lawn and Mom told him to call while his Dad and Mom were trying to stop the fight. His eyes were welling up with tears and I took off a section of toilet paper for him to dry his eyes (I couldn't keep enough tissues in my office-we don't have the budget for it).
As I gave him the tissue, I was struck by how powerless he must feel and how scary his world must seem to him right now. All I could think of was to ask him, "Do you need a hug. Come here" And before I knew it, I had broken half a dozen EEOC rules, even more board policy rules. "It will be all right, you will get through it. Your parents are doing what they can to protect you and keep everyone safe." I said as I patted and rubbed his back. Yes, I had unlawful contact-but the poor kid just needed a hug to get through the day. And frankly I think it helped me get through the rest of mine.
Rats and monsters, monsters and rat.
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