The Sixth Grade Expulsion

     I attended Jefferson Elementary which is on Carson Street in Torrance California, where I grew up.
    When I was in about the 5th grade, we'd gotten into doing tricks on those stand-alone, tri-level bars they used to put on the play grounds at grade schools so that kids would have things to really hurt themselves on. I even remember some of the tricks names. The Death Drop (the coolest of all trick names) that's where you positioned the horizontal bar just above your butt so that you could balance yourself as you laid out flat and then shifted your weight so that you tumbled off the back backwards, hopefully rotating around so that you landed on your feet but you couldn't hold onto the bar with your hands as you did this (hence the name Death Drop). I never did that trick but I did all the rest of them. Other names I can remember were: The Half or Full Knee Giant, The Full Cherry, The Hand Giant The Full Pineapple etc etc...
    One day during the lunch period I was on the highest bar doing tricks. This older kid came along and wanted me off the bar. I said I was there first, bummer for you. He grabbed me by my feet and yanked me off the bar so that I was hanging by my hands (back facing down) and he had my feet while he was continued to try and yank me free of the bar. I happened to see one of those "Noon Aids" near by. Remember those? They were moms of kids who were attending the school who would come there during recess time or Lunch and kind of patrol the grounds to make sure kids were doing what they were supposed to. Anyway, So I yelled at the Noon Aid for help because I wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer but she just stood there watching but doing nothing. I kept yelling for help but she just stood there. Finally I couldn't hang on any longer and I fell. Since the other kid was still holding onto my feet, the back of my head hit the ground first and knocked me out for like, 20-30 seconds. When I came to, I saw that the Noon Aid was STILL just standing there like a DUMB ASS so I jumped up, grabbed a hand full of sand and chucked it at her yelling "You STUPID NOON AID!! (It was all I could think of at the moment). Then I went to one of the bathroom to clean the blood out of my hair.
   The next thing I know is Mr. Jackson... Anybody remember Mr. Jackson? He was the science teacher at Jefferson and also the Phys Ed guy. But he thought he was the  "Macho Stud" type which was ridiculous to me because we were kids! I mean, pretty easy to be tough to 5th graders. He used to walk around clicking his fingers (I thought that odd) and he liked to smack kids in his class on the head with rulers (I heard he eventually got fired for this practice years later but I don't know that for sure).

    Anyway, Mr. Jackson comes up behind me on the playground, grabs me by my left ear and twists it all the way around (hurt for days after) and dragged me down to the Principles office where I just sit in the waiting room for the remainder of the day.
   The next day I show up for school and within 20 minutes of the first period I'm made to go to the Principles office yet again. I sit there for the first half of that day as well and I start thinking: If I'm forced back here again after lunch, I'm out of here!   I come back to class after lunch and again I'm sent to the Principles office. Now, understand that the entire time I'm sitting in the Principles office on both days, nobody has said word one to me. I'm completely ignored. So anyway, I show up at the office but this time they have me go into the Principle's actual office (not the waiting room as I had been) and I see my mother sitting in there along with her mother who was down from San Diego visiting us for a few days. I see tears in my mother's eyes and so I'm wondering what is going on (I had no idea this was connected to the throwing sand at the Noon Aid thing because no one had said a word to me).
    So, I sit in a chair and the Principle, Mr. Zecker starts in on me about the Noon Aid incident. I said: Wait a minute, let me tell you... But NO WAY! He didn't let me say one word about what had happened on the playground. They had already made up they're minds with out even asking me a question.
    So I got mad.
    He started asking me a bunch of questions about what a bad kid I was and wanted me to respond so I would just say: Yeah. That pissed him off and he'd yell at me: THAT'S YES SIR! But I refused to back down. He'd ask a question, I'd respond: Yeah. He'd yell: THAT'S YES SIR. Over and over and over but I would NOT say Yes Sir. My position was, you don't want to know what went on, so I don't have to be polite.
   So, after about a half hour of verbal abuse at my expense (And I had looked over at my mom figuring she would come to my defense, but she never did. She just sat there with her head down like I was some sort of major disappointment. Thanks mom).
    Eventually I was expelled from school for two days. Which made me seem cool to the other kids when I came back, for about 25 minutes or so...
    In the end, I never ONCE felt bad for the way I had acted (not even today. These days I think: Good One "Little Randy")! I DID however learn to HATE school even more than I already did after that incident.