Blindsided

I know I always say that I'm not surprised by anything that happens within the walls of my high school, but something exceptionally weird happened this week ...

At the end of the day, one of my most trustworthy students approached me and asked if I had noticed an out-of-place visitor in my classroom the period before. Stopping to think about it ... The period had been chaotic as my students worked on group projects and I tried desperately to keep their volume under control and their group work on task ... I couldn't recall seeing anyone that didn't belong.

After I replied that I hadn't noticed any impostors, the student went on to tell me how a student from one of my previous sections had snuck into the room about five minutes after the period began, hid under her friend's lab table, and proceeded to stay there for the rest of the period (forty minutes)!! Apparently, I had passed by the area multiple times, yet never caught on to what was happening under my nose.

Not only did I feel incredibly stupid that my students had to point this out to me (Really, how could I blatantly miss someone sitting under a table for forty minutes and not see them come or go?) I also felt betrayed and angry at the situation.

The sneaky student, you see, was one that other teachers complain about, but that I feel like I have advocated for and gone out of my way to mentor. I have pushed her and praised her, listened to her scholastic struggles between classes, and basically done everything in my power to lift her up where others may have crushed her down. It genuinely hurt my feelings that she would use me and my classroom in such a way ... That she obviously thinks I'm an idiot and wouldn't notice her little game (which, to her credit, I didn't).

I know I probably shouldn't take the situation personally because teenagers are so fickle, but the whole thing has just weighed me down since it happened. Skipping class is one thing. Doing it by hiding in my room is another thing entirely. It is something so disappointing and unacceptable that I can't really formulate the words to truly describe how I feel about it.

I guess the best summation is that I feel betrayed.

What is the point of putting yourself out there, taking the extra time, and trying to form these mentor relationships with students, when all they do is use it against you (whether consciously or not)?

I sure didn't see this one coming.