The first week

When my last job ended badly with threats of lawsuits and a pending department of immigration investigation. I found myself once again searching the classifieds, unfortunately this is not new territory. I find myself updating my resume every 6 months or so not because I am a bad employee, but because I am a bored employee. I learn my job, do it really well then get bored and get into trouble. A kind of employment ADD.
If my current boss is reading this rest assured I have no plans of getting bored at this job, I am here to stay! Go Team!(I heard a rumor that public servants will have their student loans forgiven after a so many years of service so I have to stay, at least until I can get some government love towards my 10,000 debt).
So I was hired as the computer lab manager for a nearby Junior High School (grades 7-9) AKA the 6th ring of hell (insert scary laugh and threatening music here).
It was my job to baby-sit the lab computers and maintain the schools website.
Easy enough! I have 10+ years computer experience, and know enough HTML/Java Script/XML knowledge to be dangerous.
Let's go back to Junior High!

As a sidebar it should be noted I hated Junior High, heretofore known as JH.
I have successfully repressed most of my memories of that ghastly period of time.


Week 1: A Sign
The first day as I walked in I noticed a sign on the cement wall near the door. It was one I had seen countless times. "No skateboards, rollerblades or scooters on property". It was a blatant condemnation of fun, it was irresistible to the little vandals. By the next day it had been altered, it now read "skateboards, blades, cooters on property". Not to be outdone the next day some other little vandal altered the message to "I ate cooters on property". The k in "skateboards" had been carefully scraped away to form an I. I was amused by both the workmanship and creativity of the message. The vandal had a real dedication to his craft. By Friday, the sign was gone. Thus went my week, the first few days were new and shiny but by Friday I was considering reconsidering.
I don’t have any teenage children yet so I am not great at interacting with them, and the job is boring. I use monitoring software to watch what the little delinquents are doing. Mostly what they are doing is trying to go to myspace (blocked) and play games (mostly blocked). They also send email that look like this;

From: somekid@thisschool.net
To:thatkid@ thisschool.net
Subject: re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re
So who you like?

From: thatkid@ thisschool.net
To: somekid@thisschool.net
Subject: re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re
I likes joeY but he axts like a JerK!

From: somekid@thisschool.net
To:thatkid@ thisschool.net
Subject: re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re;re

Thas to bad, he be CUTe! Imma go eat lunch YUCk!
LOL!



Seriously, that’s how they write. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the use of technology in schools.
I don’T usderSTAnd the Use of RANDoM capitals.
I’m not sure how to talk to these kids, or even if I supposed to.
I am not sure of my authority or position.
All I can do is stare at my computer screen and hope for the best.
And so begins my foray the public school system.