Grace like rain

The courtyard looked festive for last year's grand opening -

on Friday it held another form of festivities!

On Friday, April 1, shortly after lunch, Operation Grace Like Rain commenced. The brainchild of my roommate Erin, with help from Megan and me, it had the support of nearly the entire middle/high school faculty – about 12 teachers.

It started with buckets of water being filled and placed strategically. Then Bonnie, the guidance counselor, made an announcement over the intercom: “Would all high school students please report outside the office.” Our hallways are open-air, so just outside the main office is the school courtyard and playground. Some were a bit suspicious and tried to hover on the steps, protected by the awning. But Bonnie is not one to be messed with, and in her lecture, she sounded ANGRY. She told students she was fed up with bullying issues. “I have a student crying in my office who never wants to return! This is unacceptable. Your punishment will be a wet shower.” With that, four of us charged from around the corners –Danielle and Erin from near the art room, Elaine and I from the pool area. (We were wearing snazzy lifejackets from the PreK swimming class, if you were wondering.) We yelled and tossed water over everyone as five other teachers dumped water from the cafeteria overhead. It was amazing.

Soon, students and teachers were running around chasing each other, trying to throw flour. Before I knew it, I was being thrown in the pool, along with Danielle and Erin. The pool dunkings grew to encompass teachers all the way on the fourth floor as students charged the building looking for more culprits. Somewhere along the line, students also became each other’s victims, with about ¼ of the student body going under.

After about twenty minutes, we all headed back upstairs to class. (Thankfully it was my planning period!) I helped girls figure out how to wring out their wet clothes so they could type their history projects without flooding the computer lab. I grinned as dozens of students took in my soaked, disheveled appearance. “Ms. COOPER!” I dried off my blouse and capris as best I could, thankful for their dark color and my invincible Old Navy flip-flops. Then I sat down to finish planning 9th grade English.

When the 9th graders came in, I told them it was back to business. We quizzed each other on characters from The Odyssey, discussed heroic qualities of Odysseus and Penelope, debated Homer’s portrayal of women. Wet or not, we only had 90 minutes to review for the test the following class. And review we did!

I love my school.