Red Ticket

I can't even begin to describe the emotions I had while Mike and I watched Stockton compete in the school spelling bee.  When he won and the crowd erupted in cheers, it was simply amazing.  Here was this boy.  The new kid.  We had been so worried about him.  Worried he wouldn't fit in.  Worried he wouldn't find friends.  Worried he would feel like he didn't belong.  Now, just in school a few months, we sat listening to his peers cheer him on.  I was overwhelmed.  Even if he hadn't won the bee that day I would have left happy.  The kids were cheering him all the way.  They were cheering on the other contestants as well.  It was awesome.

After the bee was a different story.  Not with the kids, but with the teachers.  One of my beehives is in Stockton's class.  Zoe told me that another teacher came in and yelled at her class for cheering on Stockton.  She said it was rude and made the other kids feel bad.  I was confused.  I did not feel like the entire audience was rooting just for Stockton, there were cheers for everyone.  When Stockton finally did win, the kids went crazy; but I'm sure that would have been the same reaction for the other finalists.  Especially since the two hour bee was now over.  I'm sure Stockton wouldn't have felt the other students were cheering against him.  He would have been disappointed, sure, but I don't think he would begrudge the students cheering for the winner. I'm sure the other finalists weren't upset with Stockton.  I think it was the teachers overreacting.

Anyway, I knew this had happened, but I did not know Stockton was aware of it.  I took him home right after the bee, but he went to class to pick up his backpack.  I guess he heard the teacher yelling at them.  Not only that, this morning he told me that his teacher yelled at them as well.  I didn't know that.  The thing that really irritates me about this situation was the red ticket.  In Stockton's school getting a red ticket is a really good thing.  They are hard to get.  Jorja and Stockton have only received one the entire year.  One of the teachers gave a student in Stockton's class a red ticket because they DIDN'T cheer for Stockton. Seriously.  That's ridiculous and completely annoying.  I'm not sure which fact irritates me more, the fact that they did it or that they did it in front of Stockton.  Although if they didn't do it at all it wouldn't have been done in front of Stockton, so I guess I'll have to go with that one.  I wish I had known about this earlier.  I would definitely had a discussion about this at parent-teacher conference.  As it is, three months later, I will just let it go.  After I get all my frustration taken out on this blog that is.