Verde y Malverde

"Ms. Wagner....that kid of yours, Hot Rod, he touching people's butts again."  an administrator announced while I walked through the door after dismissal.  
"Yeah, I'm sorry.  I keep telling him to stop."
"He called another kid the N word, too."
"What?!"  I exclaimed.
"He said that the other kid said something anti-Asian, so, you know."  she said with a shrug.  
"Hey, wait... "  she continued.
"It wasn't Hot Rod, it was that other kid you have...Adam that said it."  

"I'm sorry."  I responded.  

"I'm gonna get Ms. Wagner to call your mama!"  the second meanest teacher in the school screamed at a Hispanic kid while I fled her classroom to go to my next class.  

It really didn't matter that he wasn't one of my students.  Or that his mom speaks English.  He was Hispanic-y looking, so, you know, must not speak English!

I had to go to court the other day.  It's kind of a long story that I might tell you one day.  Or maybe not.  At the courthouse, we ended up watching a series of criminal trials that were scheduled before ours.  All of the defendants were walked into the courtroom via a side door.  They wore jail jumpsuits.  Their feet were shackled and their arms attached to a chain that encircled their waists.  I felt grotesque sitting in the back of the courtroom, watching what was none of my business and probably one of the least pleasant days of their lives.  

In the hallway during dismissal, one teacher started beatboxing and a second followed.  I spun around to see Mauricio, dancing and shaking it in the middle of both lines of walkers.  Everyone was cheering and I could not stop laughing.  
Ku turned and shrieked.

"Hey, we got a social work referral to the county 'cuz of Hot Rod.  He grabbed a girl's butt and mom said it was sexual harassment."
I stared back.
"Yeah, I know it's stupid."  she responded.
He's five.  He grabs everyone's ass.  I think he touched mine, too.  It is not right, but it is not sexual.  

I watched a co-worker tiptoe around the corner, eyes wide as if in a horror movie.  She froze and pointed at the parents we were meeting from approximately twenty feet away.  I glanced over at the couple, wondering if one of them had sprouted a third head that I hadn't noticed.  No, they didn't, I verified.  They were just well, a different ethnicity than my co-worker.  I really can't say much else.  But I can say that I was ashamed, ashamed of her and mortified to be working with someone who feels this way and has no qualms about broadcasting it.  If there had been a "NOT WITH HER" sign I could have hung around my neck, I would have.  

"Hey, open that little red box on my desk."  I instructed Muriel.
"You might like what is in there."
She opened it up and looked at the candy and Halloween spider-rings inside.  She walked back with three.
"One if for you."  she announced, as if I couldn't take any of the ones I wanted.  
"And this one if for your dog."

"And this one is for me."

*Title, José Cota