Believe it or not, sometimes the Class of ’75 could be difficult with its teachers. One teacher was having a difficult time with the class and decided to implement a “check” system where if you talked back, you got a check by your name, if you caused trouble you got a check by your name, etc. On the third check the teacher would call the student’s parents and no child wants that. The teacher was explaining this check system to the class and when she finished she asked if there were any questions? One hand went up, it was Dale S.
“What’s your question Dale” the teacher said to which Dale replied:
“I just want to know where I can cash these checks”. The class began to giggle and laugh. It’s moments like these that can wear on a teacher and while the students think of this as having fun, the teacher was not appreciative of the humor. She put much work into her check system only to have it mocked and ridiculed the first day with a wise crack from a student.
It was on a day like this that something similar was taking place between some of the boys and the teacher and the teacher was getting a little tired of all the back talking from the boys. The girls from the class did not like these exchanges and would sometimes get a little nervous with the negative energy being exchanged. One girl, Cathie P, would relax by playing with a rubber band when these negative exchanges took place. Cathie was a model student and also a Cheerleader. A teacher could not do better than getting more students like Cathie in her class. Except today, something happened. One of those flukes of life that could not possibly happen but does. The rubber band flew out of Cathie’s hand and hit the teacher in the chest during of one of these exchanges with her students.
Who was more stunned, the teacher or the student, we will never know but it was the breaking point for this teacher who – after being hit with a rubber band by a model student – began to cry and then did the only thing she could do; she went into the little closet and closed the door behind her. The class was stunned by this development and for a few minutes the world of the little friends was turned upside down. Instead of a bad student in the closet the teacher was in there and the class was teacher-less. The trouble making boys of the class were in silent awe over what had just happened. Do they go get help or do they swear allegiance to this new and unexpected girl who pulled a prank not while the teacher wasn’t looking but while she was looking.
Once the initial shock of what had happened subsided a bit, the class decided that a student should go and return with a nun to help the teacher come out of the closet and return to her “dutiful” class. What happened that day is still speculated upon to this day. Was this some sort of pseudo child psychiatry? Were the children of this class simply monsters who drove their teacher into a closet? Or possibly was the teacher was just pushed too far and needed a sort of time out that day? We will never know for sure as the mystery of the teacher’s closet will have to be listed as one of those unexplained phenomenon such as U.F.O.’s, Lochness Monsters, and Bigfoot.
