A First I Could Have Lived Without

Since Kindergarten, Caleb has only acted out aggressively at school once - until about 10 days ago.  In the last 10 days, Caleb has acted out aggressively at school on two separate occasions.  Today is a first I could have lived without!

About 10 days ago, I received an e-mail from Caleb's teacher informing me of an incident at the end of indoor recess - it was the first dose of his aggression the school has seen.  It was minor (thankfully) and he was easily calmed.

Today everything changed.  Tony was off today because of President's Day and we went to the mall to get Tony some glasses and do some other shopping.  At approximately 12:05 I received a call from the school saying that I needed to come to the school immediately because they were having difficulties with Caleb.  I told them that we were at the mall and would be there as soon as we could. 

The entire 25 minute drive to the school there were images going through my mind - and it was horrible!  I had no idea what we were going to find when we got to the school.  When we finally arrived at the school and parked, I looked over and saw two - not one - but TWO school police cars. 

We got into the school and was taken to a conference room where Caleb was sitting at a conference table with two resource officers on each side of him along with the Assistant Principal standing outside the door.

We went in and asked Caleb what happened and he said he didn't know.  When he has rages he has never remembered what happened to cause the rage.

His teacher came walking in, very visibly shaken.  She was near tears as was I.  She began telling us that they had indoor recess today and when the regular ed para that was in the room asked Caleb to clean up and he lost it.  He hit and kicked the para.  Caleb's regular teacher walked him down to his special ed classroom.  His teacher told him that his name would have to be written on the board, which means he would have to pay money based on the behavior system that she has in place in her classroom.  Evidently, at this time, Caleb's behavior went completely out of control.  The Speech Teacher was in the classroom at the time and Caleb went after both of them.  I don't know how long it was, but at some time they called the resource officers who showed up.  In all, they said it took 20 to 25 minutes for Caleb to gain control.

In talking to his teacher, she does not feel Caleb is cognitively able to understand or comprehend what happened.  I told her that we have described Caleb's rages as a switch being flipped and she completely agreed with me.

I ended up taking Caleb to our Crisis center, forgetting that it was a holiday.  I was hoping that they would call his doctor and we could discuss a med adjustment, especially since his next appointment is not scheduled until April.  However, because of the holiday, the doctor was not working and she's off tomorrow.  I will be calling the nurse in the morning and seeing if we can get an appointment soon to discuss what's going on.

Lord, please continue giving us the strength to make it through each and every day. 

Oh, what a day!