Bad Word Cursing Students

Bad
Word Cursing Students

by

Austin
Mitchell

           I was in total shock that Jake Kerber, our
peace corps volunteer and woodwork teacher, told me a Jamaican bad word. Jake
was out of Germany. Now I know Jake, he had been at Mc Kinley High for a little
over three months. He was a straight shooter and wasn’t afraid   

of expressing
his opinion. We were in a meeting me, him and the David Butler, our sports
master. Jake suddenly got up, cursed and went outside. David looked at me as he
left the room.

            “What did you do to annoy Jake now,
Watson?” he asked me.

            I gave him a blank expression.

            “Nothing, I didn’t know that he knew
bad words.”

            Jake returned to the room and we
continued our meeting.

            When the meeting was over I repeated
the bad word he told me. He simply said that it meant that he wanted to be
excused from the room.

            David burst out laughing and I
managed a chuckle. Jake saw the expression on our faces and asked us for an
explanation. We told him what it meant. He told us that all the boys used it,
especially when they wanted to be excused from the class.

             I gave Jake a small tape recorder
to keep on his person. For

almost a week
nothing happened. Then in the second week, Jake  

told me that he had
something. I listened to the tape and heard some

choice Jamaican
language.They were ripping the bad words at Jack  

both when they were
going out of the classroom and when they were

returning.

           Incidentally, there were two girls
and four boys who got taped.  

I recognized their
voices. I called them to a meeting and played the   

tape for them to
listen. The two girls were in tears. But the boys said

that they meant
nothing by it and were just playing a prank on Jake. I  

knew it was a
serious matter and I told them so. Suppose any

government official
or the police had been passing the classroom and

heard those expressions,
not only they would have gotten into  

trouble but the school
would have been disgraced. We told Jake that  

some of the words
the offending boys and girls used to him, they  

would not dare use
them to anybody on the street. As a matter of  

fact, they couldn’t
use them to their very classmates.

            I let them go with a warning that
any repeat and I would take the offender to the principal. I knew that now that
they realized that Jake was on to their pranks they wouldn’t dare repeat it.
Nevertheless,  the dean of discipline and
myself were always patrolling the corridors looking for the trouble makers,
especially from that class. The End.

Austin's blog: stredwick.blogspot.com

bad
word- curse word, profanity