Three in a row

Can it be? Things are looking up for me.

I was counting today and I only have 5 weeks until my maternity leave (if it's granted). That's awesome. The hard part is getting sub plans together. I'm going to laugh a good kind of laugh when Baby Beaver doesn't even make her way into the world until after school is over for the year. That would put me over by a week, but isn't that normal with a first pregnancy? If not normal, then not unheard of?

I wrote a referral on one of Mr. Principal's favorite students for getting up and walking out of my class to go to the bathroom (there's a story in which I was justified in declining her request to leave--I make sure I cover my butt). She asked to go, I said no, and she said, "Yes, I can." And she left. And then, get this, she wanted to come back into the classroom. Um, no. So I wrote up a referral and hadn't really heard anything about actions taken when we got back to school Tuesday. I did make sure to mention on there that I hoped he wouldn't treat this incident lightly (a waste of my effort). Come fourth period, I find out that her "punishment" is that she isn't allowed to come to my class anymore. She sits up in the conference room and does her work by herself. No in-school-suspension, no parent conference, no teacher feedback. Now she doesn't have to ask me for permission to leave anymore and I'm sure she can go anytime she likes, since there's no one actually monitoring the students that wind up in the conference room. It's like he thinks I have a personal grudge against this student (which I don't--just her isolated behavior). She's actually a very good student, but more like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When she is good, she is very, very good. And when she is bad, she is horrid.

Punishment, indeed.

Should I be flattered that the flip side of this is that my principal considers coming to my class a privilege for students?