A BIG SUPER HELLO to all of my friends here again
!!!!!
Anywho, Soooooo much to talk about with what's been going on with my life these days...
In another four months I'll be celebrating TWELVE YEARS!!! I really am numb at times when I take a minute or two to think about all that I've been through since my liver transplant back on October 8th, 1997... I've been through a lot of ups and downs throughout this journey...So much progress as well as some disappointing setbacks but then again, I should now by now that Life isn't supposed to be always fair and just all the time...
One example is what happened to me recently in the beginning of march of this year... I was having a good time teaching pipe welding, Metallurgy, and Non Destructive testing methods of different types of welds & metals. It was the last Friday in the month of February, and I just finished giving my students an end of the week test.
Now on Fridays, the students had the hours of 7:45 AM to 11:45 AM as opposed to 2:45 PM and during the previous semester, the students who completed the quiz/tests before 11:45 AM were given the luxury of being dismissed form class so that they could get a jump on driving or taking a bus back home to wherever they called home as they stayed in campus dorms during the school week...
So here I am around 20 minutes to 11 AM sitting at my desk in the classroom which btw, is not a separately partitioned room from the welding lab...
In other words, there's an open space where the classroom starts, and where the lab ends... Now mind you, the students were no longer allowed to leave early once they finished any of the quiz/tests they were given on Fridays any longer in the final semester because I wanted to give them more time to start working on their capstone/Final projects so that they would not fall behind which was the case the previous year with some of the students not able to complete their projects before the end of the semester. They were informed of this change on January the 13th on the beginning of the final semester so, it's not like I suddenly and unfairly changed the rules on them in the middle of the semester.
Anwho, most of the students handed in their completed tests so, I decided to get a jump on grading them while they went back in the lab to work on their final projects which were a wide variety of concepts put together by the students to put together first, as a proposal which would be either approved or not recommended by both myself and the chairperson of the Computerized Design & Manufacturing Department... Well, Let's just say that the Chairperson, not wanting to disappoint any of her young boys the opportunity to work on whatever type of project they chose (Maternal instincts, I suppose?) as opposed to what was practical within the time constraints we had in order to complete them in a timely manner.
At the same time, the students only had certain times during the regular school week to work on their capstone/final projects which were to be their final grade based on how well they combined all of what they learned throughout the courses they took within the two years of the Associates degree program they were about to complete in May and graduate.
The students were also required to complete the mandatory performance qualification practical tests welding a variety of pipe tests in order to complete the certification status as AWS certified level II Advanced welders... A few of these students were falling behind for a variety of reasons ,and some were just plain running out of excuses for not keeping up with the pace that was necessary for them to complete these tasks in order to recieve their certifications from myself as the one person responsible to make sure the did every task as a requirement in order for me to grant them certification, otherwise I would've been qualifying them unethically, and in violation of the standards that the AWS entrusted me to follow to the letter as a certified Welding Educator/Inspector. I wasn't about to potentially lose my own certification just so a few of the students who were falling behind would be allowed to slide by, and not complete the required tasks if the AWS certification committee ever found out that I did such a thing.
A few of these students developed a real bad attitude towards me because of my insistence that they had to complete the required tasks in a timely manner in order to become Level II certified welders. So they decided to ignore my warnings, and i had no choice but to discipline them by not giving them free reign on who they would use their time in the lab to work on their motorcycle/final projects which only6 exasperated the situation, and caused a whole bunch of tension and anxiety in the atmosphere in the Senior year welding class of 2008-09. The worst part about it was the fact that I was not getting any support from the Department Chair or the Dean of Applied Technologies as these students started to miss too much time, left early, returned from breaks or lunch late... In other words theri was no support form the administration in order to make sure that these students got the message that they had to become accountable for their actions which only gave some of the rest of the student whom in the previous semester were decent students that did not cause problems, to become less responsible, accountable, and also distracted by these three, and finally demoralized by the fact that the administration looked the other way instead of enforcing accountability on these students.
So, on the 27th of February, on a Friday, while I had just begun to start on grading the tests the student had completed... I was struck with a piece of copper/brass metal contact tip which resembled a light caliber bullet on my right lower jaw about two inches from my mouth which was tremendously painful... It felt like I got sucker punched in the jaw!!! The problem was that I was focusing on grading so, I could not notice who hurled the object at me... My reaction was swift and deliberate...
I proceeded to demand who threw it with nobody responding because after all, it was a cowardly act that only someone with no real cojones would do!!!
I then dismissed the entire class as the area where I was struck was beginning to swell up quickly which I interpreted as a warning that I was indeed hurt more than I initially thought, and my instincts told me to seek medical attention... Well I did ,and fortunately my jaw was not fractured but, the bruise was pretty severe nonetheless.
The following Monday, the Dean requested that the State University Police investigate the matter, and I mistakenly decided to return to work on Tuesday because I was still hurting from the assault on Monday. I was unaware that this incident resulted me in experience post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the incident. The investigation resulted in not being able to identify who the culprit was. this caused me to lose a bunch of sleep from the nightmares I was experiencing, and I started to feel very uncomfortable when I went back to teaching the class knowing that one of the students was responsible for the incident, and was right there laughing to himself about the fact that he got away with it!!!
I completed another week at Alfred State, and could not wait for spring break which was approaching fast as the last day of class before the break would be on Friday the 13th of March so, I kept trying to convince myself to hang on until then but by the end of the first week in March I submitted a formal letter of resignation because I felt that the school could not provide me adequate protection from any probable future attacks amongst a variety of other reasons..I also informed my department chair that I would stay on until the remainder of the semester if they needed me to do so as long as one of the support staff was present in the facility where I taught would be present so that no other incident would hopefully not occur. I also remembered that I had accured some seven personal/sick days, and it was suggested by one of my colleagues to use them up before I would finally leave the school for good so, I informed the department chair, and the Dean that I would be taking a few days off from work just before the spring break began... Well they both were not happy at all with me, and threatened to replace me immediately after spring break ended if I decided to do so.
I apologize for not completing this story right now!!! It's just that it's almost daybreak, and I must get some rest so, I'll finish the rest of this awful experience later today.
Respectfully,
Henry
HCV ANONYMOUS
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