The History teacher I mentioned, Mr. Black, was a piece of work. He
was one of those teachers that was incapable of taking the adult
route of conflict resolution and was always engaged in power
struggles with students. One notable battle was between Mr. Black and
a long haired stoner kid named Dustin. Dustin was a hardcore kid with
a bad-a attitude and he was always pushing the limits with teachers.
It was usually fun to watch especially if teachers chose to do battle
in his arena, namely – smartassery. He would goof off and then a
teacher would ask him what he was doing and he would invariably have
something funny and sassy to say back. One day Mr. Black had engaged in a little verbal sparring with Dustin and had clearly come out the
loser based on the children's laughter at his expense and that is
when he ran across the room and grabbed Dustin by the hair and
shoulder and marched him out in the hall to yell at him. We all
listened intently to the escalated battle in the hall which was the
usual back and forth about 'you will respect my class' and that type
of nonsense. When Dustin said one more thing inaudible to us and Mr.
Black flew into a rage and yelled out, “I will step on you!” Then
he sent Dustin to the principals office and huffed his way back into
class. He was still being snippy and told another kid to put
something away and the kid asked, 'If I don't will you step on me?”
That is when he lost it and started screaming at all of us at such a
pitch and intensity that the English teacher from across the hall
came over and told him he needed to calm down because he was
disturbing the whole school. He yelled at us all to read but we were
to out of sorts at that point to do anything but look at the page and
try not to laugh until the class was over. Dustin was not ever
stepped on but 'I will step on you became a common treat on the
playground and in the halls after that.
