Work

* All names will be changed, or left out in order to maintain confidentiality!


Today we went on a field trip... We went to the Discovery Gateway Museum. If you haven't been, I seriously recommend it. I can spend hours building things on the 2nd level! Well, we took a smaller group than earlier this week. It was fun! Until time started winding down to departure for lunch back at camp. We had just checked to make sure all the kids were upstairs, and we were deciding when to leave, then a worker came up to us, and asked if this id was with us. Of course, he was, most wondering, curious kids are with us, and can be gone from our sight within seconds. This Employee at the Museum proceeds to tell us that he had pushed another child down the stairs, and had wondered downstairs, and she wanted to make sure we knew where he was! At this point we decided that we needed to go. We left the museum, and headed downstairs, the staff driving the bus went to get the bus to meet us. As we were headed downstairs, I asked a kid to stop. In defiance, he ran ahead, out the door, and then into the street. I ran faster than him, just in time and stopped right in front of him. I When I had blocked him off from going further into the road, he collapsed on his knees, then went face first onto the ground with his arms out, and his head in the road! I stayed between him and any cars that might pass, and as I was trying to get him out of the road, a car cut the corner, and a firetruck was turning at the same time. The both barely missed us on the already narrow road way. After that close call, I just picked the kid up, and moved him. As I was trying to do that, he hit me with his fist, and scratched my arm, then spit in my face! What a joy! Eventually, I got him up and put him in a Mandt restraint, for a couple seconds to just get him out of the way of traffic, and then got him to a safe place. He ran back inside the museum, and hid in the corner where he buried his face knowing that he had done something, or A LOT of things wrong just then. We talked about how we needed to stay safe and the best way to do that was to listen to us as counselors. We made a deal that he could go swimming later that day if he acted better. After that, he was De-escalated, and calmed down a little bit. There were still some incidents throughout the day where kids were frustrated, and acted out in defiance to us, or compelled to do so by other kids that caused the tension! By the end of the day, all we could do was laugh about all of the situations. I am a little sore from trying to lift and restrain that kid, but I am glad that neither of us got hit by cars, and that things weren't a lot worse. I hope that the kid that was pushed down the stairs doesn't sue, or anything like that! I am sure that there will be more and more exciting stories coming from this summer. This was just one of the more eventful days that I thought I would write about!