Friday was progress report day. The students carry their reports with them for the day, and each teacher fills it out during their class periods. It was very mellow, because I saw each of my classes for about 50 minutes, and they did independent work while I took care of the paperwork. Even my freshmen were relatively mellow for most of the period.

"Linden" is one of my freshmen who keeps me up at night. I am not sure what happened to his parents, but he lives with his older sister. He can be charming, but he has a very bad attitude sometimes. He goes back and forth between trying to please and insisting on being defiant. I heard him swearing on Friday so I told him he would stay for a minute with me after class. He said, "F*** that." When I said, "Excuse me?" he said, "F*** that, F*** this class, and F*** you." I took him in the hallway immediately and told hime I would be calling home. He told me he didn't give a F***.

I was sitting next to him with three minutes to go on the side table. He asked me why I was sitting so close to him, and I said it was because I liked him. "Tanesha" snickered, and I heard someone say something about me being gay. Then, Linden seemed to snap. "Are you gay Mr. Moore?" he said. "Totally innapropriate," I responded. He mimicked me..."Totally innapropriate," he said. I ignored him, but all of a sudden he was in my face. "Do you like pussy Mr. Moore?" I was shocked. I had no idea how to respond because I really didn't expect this sort of behavior from Linden. He continued. "I bet you have a small dick," he said. I just looked at him, and grabbed his arm. He struggled a little bit and the bell rang. I tried to restrain him from leaving, but he got away. I am calling his sister this weekend, and I am not allowing him back in until we have a conference and he gives me a sincere apology.

A lot of my students think I'm gay. I'm not the picture of masculinity that they are used to. I am white, nice, respectful towards women, and some of my physical motions can be on the effeminate side. My students are used to men who are stoic and physical. I am neither, and I think it throws them off. Linden's behavior would have sent me into tears a month ago, but it hardly phased me at all on Friday. That sort of thing just rolls off me now. My armour is pretty thick.