Masters, Part 4

I stepped into Yolanda's office in front of Miyako and Pete Post, who shut the door behind him. Yolanda was already sitting down.

Pete began, "Stokie, you know that as a veteran staff, the organization values your investment and experience here..."

I said, "That line is always followed by 'however...'"

"However, from time to time even the veteran staff show signs of stress and make mistakes in their handlings of the kids here. And I'm here to talk to you about this morning and determine if there were any mistakes made and talk to you about whether or not you're feeling any stress on the job."

"Well, Pete, I appreciate your concern for my welfare. I don't remember anything about this morning and I'd have to read Miyako's incident report to remind myself. May I see it please?"

"Actually, she hasn't completed it yet. She came to me with it and asked for help with the English. When I helped her write it, she described the incident to me and I became concerned about your handling of the client."

"So there's no incident report? I better get to work on it right away. Miyako, why didn't you just come to me for help on the IR? Why did you go to Pete? After all, I was the one who was there, not Pete."

Pete squirmed in his chair. "I don't think that's the point here..."

Yolanda piped up, "Yeah Miyako. I know I told you when I met you yesterday that you should be checking in with your teammates all the time, especially if you're confused or have questions. Why didn't you do that?"

Miyako's eyes started welling up. "Pete told me that he wanted to know what was going on in the house. He say 'Tell me if anybody, especially veteran staff like Stokie Jaye do anything might be wrong.' So I tell him and he say Stokie might get fired."

I could have murdered Pete Post right then and there. "So Pete, what I'm hearing is that you're hiring new staff to be your spies so that you can try to fire veteran staff like me. Do you have any idea how fucked-up that is? You Admins keep talking about supporting us and then you go and do something like this? You all are just talking out of your assholes."

Pete responded, "I assure you, cursing at me is not going to help you explain any possible illegal behavior."

"Oh yeah. Miyako, can you remind me what illegal behavior I engaged in?"

Miyako was silent for a moment. Then she burst into tears. "I'm sorry, I didn't know! Not sure, not sure."

Pete said, "Miyako, you told me that Stokie picked up Brian by himself and threw him into the Quiet Room. Isn't that what you saw?"

Miyako said through sobs, "Not sure, not sure."

Yolanda said, "Sounds like she's not sure, Pete. And Stokie? Do you remember what happened now?"

"Yes, Yolanda. As I walked toward Brian, he did a backward sommersault into the Quiet Room. I just shut the door because he was being assaultive to Miyako by spitting on her. She just sat there and took it, too." I turned to Pete, "I wonder where she learned that?"

Miyako got up and ran out. This was the last time any of us saw her as she faxed in her letter of resignation the next day.

Yolanda said, "Pete, I think it's time for you to get out of my office, you aren't making any friends right now."

Pete got up to leave and said to me, "There's too much hands on going on in this house. And another thing, you better think twice before you lie to me again." With that he left the house.

I got up to leave too. I said to Yolanda, "You need to do your own dirty work. I got Admin stink all over me and almost lost my job for it."

Masters, Part 3

I didn't really think about my intervention with Brian and Miyako after that. There was a staff meeting to get prepared for, kids to be taken to school and a house to get cleaned up. I told Mel that I would drive the kids down to school, he would get the last bits of the house cleaned up, and Miyako? I told Miyako that she could work on her incident report regarding Brian.

As for me, I liked to take my time getting back to the house after I dropped the kids off at school, and for a couple of reasons. Many of the school staff are my old friends. Most of them used to be counselors just like me but got sick of the low pay and administrative bullshit that goes with this job. (Little did they know that the School Counselor's job came with its own brand of low pay and bullshit.) The fact of the matter is, there is an "us against them" mentality that affects both staffs.

It goes like this:

The House staff knows best because we are on the front lines and are experts on the kids' behavior. We know all their interpersonal dynamics, from peer interaction to family abuse. What these kids really need is tough behavior modification because nobody ever took the time to teach these kids discipline.

vs.

The School staff knows best because they are on the front lines of the kids' educational development. Kids' misbehavior can be traced to obvious learning disabilities. What these kids really need are chances, because nobody ever gave them one when they really needed it.

I have seen many House staff switch jobs and seemingly overnight, treat me like I was the enemy, like my ideas were crazy. I have also seen School staff come and work up at the houses and behave similarly to their ex-mates. The truth is, the Administrative staffs of both organizations hold each other in contempt. This attitude naturally trickles down to the front line staff who take it out on each other. I like to hang around the School staff for a while to get a sense of what is going on down at the school, what the staff are thinking and doing with the kids.

As I walked the kids to their classrooms, I spent a couple of minutes checking in with the teachers and the teachers' aides before I walked on down to the counselor's office. By the time I got there, fat-ass Rusty was already in trouble, huffing and puffing about some injustice his teacher had perpetrated against him. He was talking to Jamaal, an ex-counselor who had about as much experience as me, someone I respect, and a guy who also sees that so much of our jobs rest on the exercise of ridiculousness.

Jamaal says to Rusty, "Now Rusty, just because your teacher is a fucking bitch doesn't mean you can't stay in school."

"Well that's what she is, and she knows it," puffs Rusty.

"Well, yeah, she definitely knows it now that you screamed it to her in class..."

"Oh no! You're definitely coming back up to the house and you're gonna get tons of consequences," I say, "Let's go."

Jamaal winks at me. "Oh my gosh, did you hear that? That's Stokie Jaye talking, he don't mess around. You know why? Cuz he's old and crusty..."

"That's right, Jamaal knows, too. I was already this way when me and him built this school 30 years ago, back in our hippie days. Jamaal had an afro out to here and I had long hair, a beard and long robe, lotta people mistook me for Jesus, right Jamaal?"

"Mmm, hmm."

Rusty perked up. "You guys built this school?"

Jamaal said, "In fact, back then Stokie's rap name was 'Stokie JJ Hippie Jeeze' becuase he looked so much like Jesus."

I said, "But everybody knows Jesus was a black man."

Jamaal's cheeks were puffy, suppressing laughter. "I wouldn't want to be up in the house with him. If I were you, I'd rather apologize to your teacher and stay down here..."

"Here it comes," I said.

"...Now I'm gonna give you just one more chance..."

I started out the door. "Pleasure doing business with you Mr. Jaye," said Jamaal.

"As always. Let me know when his thirty last chances run out, I'll be back down to pick him up."

By the time I had returned to the house, I was about a half an hour late for the staff meeting. As I entered, I noticed that the chemicals were still really strong, even with the fan on. Around the table sat 5 counselors, the House Supervisor Yolanda, the therapist Sam, and Mel, who was giggling and pointing at Miyako. Miyako held a paper towel over her mouth and nose and was sitting next to the laundry room door, which was slightly open. (I assumed correctly that Mel's magic potion sat bubbling behind the door.) Also in attendance was Janette Stankin, the Clinical Supervisor. I couldn't tell which was worse; Mel's cleaning potion or Janette's perfume. Whenever she walked into a room, it seemed like you were being smashed over the head with a bottle of Chanel #5. I felt like asking Miyako if I could borrow her paper towel.

Yolanda said to me as I found a seat next to Mel, "Lots of kids in crisis at school, I guess."

"Oh, always. Lucky thing I was there."

She said, "Just to catch you up, we were just talking about Michael and some of the frustrations we feel."

"Oh, okay. Did we already talk about 'warehousing?'"

My comment hit its target squarely as Janette visibly tensed up.

"Well, no, nobody actually used that term. Maybe there's something you'd like to say about it?"

I said, "Okay. Well it just seems to me that we've done about all we can with Michael. We are not equipped to deal with developmental disabilities; we deal with emotional problems. He needs to go to a facility like the Regional Center that deals with DD. In the mean time, he gets bigger and stronger, has more sex with his peers and assaults more staff. And since he can't understand our program, we just wind up appeasing him all the time so he doesn't get mad." I turned to Janette, "And I guess since his county just keeps paying, we just take the money and store him here, like a warehouse."

Mel elbowed me, trying to make me laugh at Miyako. Janette was mad at me.

"Stokie, you know very well that we've been trying to get Michael to the Regional Center for months. They just won't take him because he's not developmentally disabled enough. They just turned down our most recent application. His social worker is happy with the job we're doing with him and is satisfied that Michael is placed well here."

I said, "So as long as the county is paying, we're happy to let him get bigger, have sex and hit people. Okay, I just wanted to be able to tow the company line."

"You sound so bitter," said Janette.

"Yup, that's me, Mr. Bitter. I should probably be more happy about warehousing kids. You know what? I can be happier! Is this a bad time to ask for a raise? I figure with all that money we're getting from the county, we could all be getting paid more. May my teammates and I please all have raises?"

Janette got up to leave. "Yolanda, thank you for your time and good luck with your staff."

I turned to my teammates, "Sorry guys, I gave it my all."

Miyako also got up and quickly shuffled outside for some air. As the meeting broke up, I went in to the laundry room with Mel.

"Mel, what the fuck is in this shit?" Mel was still giggling as he opened the chemical closet.

"Man, I just threw in everything," he said as he took out bottles of cleaner and put them on the washing machine. "Little of this, little of that."

I looked at the cleaners. Ajax, Simple Green, bleach, Windex, Pine-Sol, Mr. Clean with ammonia...

My jaw dropped. "Dude! What the fuck is wrong with you? This shit can kill you! Didn't you read the label?" I realized what a stupid question that was, of course he didn't read the fucking label. "Mel, dude, if you mix bleach and ammonia it makes a poisonous gas that kills people. For real, it kills people."

"How the fuck I'm supposed to know that? All the labels are in Spanish."

"That's so people's cleaning ladies don't die when they clean their house." I dumped the potion out through the back door. "Course, if you killed Miyako, that woulda made Yolanda's day. God damn, Mel!"

I came back into the kitchen and there, standing with Miyako, was Pete Post. He had three circle shaped Band-Aids stuck on his face where he shaved over his adult acne.

"Greetings, Stokie. It seems as though there was an intervention this morning which involved you and Brian. Apparently, some questionable techniques were used. I would like you to accompany me so that I may glean some more information."

As I walked with Pete to the Supervisor's office, I thought to myself, "If I still have a job when this shit is over, I'm gonna kill that Miyako. This is what I get for trying to help."

Masters, Part 2

While Mel went into the laundry room to mix up what I'm sure was going to be a potent cleansing potion, I went to Brian's room to wake him up. He earned some work details overnight because the Night Awake caught him trying to crawl into the kitchen and steal some Pop-Tarts.

"Brian, wake up. I want you to get these work details done before you go to school. Time's a-wasting, let's go."

"Can I please just have another 10 minutes or so? I'm tired," he whined.

"No way, dude, if you had gone to bed when you were supposed to you woulda had plenty of sleep. Instead, you wanted to run around and play Pop-Tart Commando. Get up."

"Please, Stokie? I'll do the work details later."

"Remember when I said 'No'? Now get up."

Brian reluctantly slithered out of bed and washed his face. He approached me with unkempt hair, bleary eyes and he was scratching his ass.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked.

I said, "Mel is in the laundry room making some mop water. Go get it, mop all the bathrooms and showers, the hallways, the kitchen, dining room and laundry room. Do a good job, not a half-ass-I-mean-hearted job and you might be done after that. Check in with me when you're done."

Brian liked it when I cussed and pretended not to and said, "Okay Stokie, thanks."

I walked through the other boys' rooms and got them up. I could hear Brian from the laundry room, "Jeez, Mel, what'd you put in here? This mop water is hecka-strong!"

"Hee-hee-hee," came Mel's voice from somewhere across the house.

As I suspected, Brian slopped mop water all over the floor as he struggled to control the mop bucket and bring it to the places I told him to mop. He dutifully followed directions and wiped mop water all over the designated floors and bathrooms. When he was done he said, "Stokie, do you think we should open a window?"

I said, "What for? That's a nice pine scent. That's what we're shooting for." At that moment, Miyako walked in the house.

I said, "I'm gonna give Miyako a crossover then you can check in with her for the rest of your work details."

This irritated Brian. "What? You said I'd be done after I mopped! Aww, man!"

As I walked up to Miyako, I noticed that her eyes were watery. I thought the chemicals in the water were awfully strong, too.

"Hi Miyako. Brian here has just one more work detail to do. Can you tell him to set the table and put out the cereal and milk? I have to go drop the kids off at the pool."

As I walked toward the staff office I heard Miyako ask Brian, "The pool? Before breakfast?"

Brian started up immediately with his patented sassy attitude. We called it 'throwin' out the sass'. "He means he's gonna go take a dump. You newcumbers don't understand anything."

I walked into the staff office, shut the door behind me, but opened it just a crack so Mel and I could watch what would happen next. We were giggling like a couple of school kids.

Miyako said to Brian, "Umm, ok, so... Can you set the table and put cereal and milk on the table?"

"Nope. Stokie said I was done with my work details, so I don't have to."

"He told me you have to set the table and put cereal and milk on the table so you better do that."

"Oh, ok. Fine," Brian said as he walked into the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator. "You want me to put milk on the table? Then I WILL GODDAMMIT!"

Brian grabbed the gallon of milk in the fridge, opened it and shook it upsidedown onto the table. "There! See that? Think you're so smart? Look, I'm putting milk on the table because the newcumber told me too..."

Miyako, obviously didn't know what to do. She was looking around for help, stumbling over her words and panicky. I walked out of the staff office and feigned shock.

"Oh my God, Miyako! What did you do? All he had to do was set the table! I can't believe it Miyako, if you weren't sure, you should have asked."

I turned to Brian, "Into the Quiet Room."

I turned back to Miyako, "Me and Mel are gonna take Brian to the Quiet Room because he's violent. Can you clean up this mess? The mop bucket is in the laundry room. Then after that you're gonna have to write an incident report."

As Mel and I walked Brian across the house, I asked him, "Brian, why did you do that?"

"I always do that to damn newcumbers. They don't understand shit."

I spent about 5 minutes with Brian in the Quiet Room. I never had to shut the door and lock him in it because he was pretty calm. I said, "Well Brian, I think you should apologize to Miyako. I have to get the other kids ready for school."

Brian, unwilling to relinquish this valuable one-on-one time said, "No way, she should apologize to me."

"Well, I'll go get her so you can apologize anyway."

I walked out and called Miyako, "Hey, can you come here and sit with Brian for a while? He wants to apologize. Thanks." She came over and had a seat next to Brian. As I left, they were just sitting, staring at each other silently.

Mel and I went about our business of helping the kids get up and eat breakfast. I noticed my eyes were burning and I could practically taste the chemicals in the air. "Damn Mel, one of these days you're gonna have to give me the recipe for that mop water."

"Little bit of this, little bit of that," said Mel. I opened up all the windows. This was getting painful, even for me.

By now, most of the kids were ready for school and I decided to check on Brian and Miyako, since I hadn't heard anything in a while. I rounded the corner to the Quiet Room and was surprised to see Brian and Miyako sitting in the same positions facing each other, still quiet, only this time, Brian was casually, yet continuously spitting on Miyako. Now I'm all for hazing, but this was way too much.

"Oh hell no, Brian!" I walked up past Miyako, picked up Brian and shoved him into the Quiet Room and locked the door. "Miyako! You need to call for help when something like that happens! Go to the staff office bathroom and get cleaned up." She scampered off. Mel poked his head in to see what was going on.

"Dude, this is worse than I thought," I said. "Don't do anything else, she really doesn't have a clue." I was feeling pretty bad that we had taken Yolanda's bait. I felt like a pawn in someone else's battle. But this day was just beginning.