An hour in a day
posted: May 23, 04:35 PM
I should really start this story with “once upon a time”, but this opening would imply my imagination was at work. I guess “truth can be stranger than fiction”.
Yesterday had been a busy but uneventful day at school until shortly after the lunch break. I was upstairs in our school talking to a student when the vice principal approached me and said “I need your help.” Always obliging, off I go.
It turns out there is a “non-student” in the girls’ washroom. The v.p. is male so can’t enter the bathroom. I go in, with him waiting at the entrance. I speak briefly and casually with the two girls who are in the bathroom…then I make some equally casual comment about the nice shoes belonging to the occupant of the only occupied cubicle. I suggest it might also be a good idea to exit the cubicle, it’s obvious the feet are just standing behind the door. I’m very non-threatening in my tone and language, one, because this is me and two, because I have no idea what the situation may be.
The girls who’ve been speaking with me seem to register it might be prudent to leave and do. The feet move somewhat, but only marginally. They appear to have no wish to speak.
I try again. This time I again comment on the good looking shoes, which must be attached to a person, who am I am certain is equally nice and would like to speak with…. Nothing. I try again. I repeat what I’ve already said, but add that not coming out gives an impression they probably don’t want to give and also add I know the feet have a human being attached. Still nothing. No movement, no voice. Turning into a very creepy situation.
I back out of the bathroom, not wanting any surprises. I tell the v.p. I’m not getting any response. He asks if there is anyone else in the bathroom. I observe not unless their feet are on the toilets. He goes in and knocks on the cubicle door and says “If you don’t come out we will need to call the police”. Nothing. Creepier and creepier.
He tries calling on his cell phone, but it won’t work in the hallway. He asks me if I feel safe waiting outside the bathroom door while he goes to make the call downstairs. (We have no security features in our classrooms, hallways or on our person). I say yes, mainly because I know if the unknown person does deign to exit the cubicle I’m giving him or her lots of space.
The v.p. goes downstairs looks at the video footage from the security cameras which monitor the entrances to the school. He discovers who this girl (we now know it is a girl) came in with and brings our student up to the bathroom. She is trying to deny having brought anyone into the school, he tells her not to bother, just tell the girl to come out and to leave. Interestingly, this works. The exiting the cubicle and the bathroom. The illegal entrant does not want to leave the building even when directed to by the principal who is accompanied by the v.p. and me.
The girl has no expression on her face, completely ignores us, doesn’t appear angry, amused…nothing. No response to directives, questions. She just didn’t care? Or? It was one of the most unusual and, perhaps disturbing experiences with which I have been involved.
I know reading this you may be thinking along the lines of “what was so creepy about this?” Here is why I find this to have been a disturbing situation. I’m accustomed to youth expressing their emotions. I’m familiar with verbal and physical aggression; tears; anger or sadness or regret or …. being expressed in whatever manner the individual knows how to express it. I am not used to nothing…I find no expression of emotion unsettling and concerning.
Gemini