Oh, No! He's Mad at Me!

There is a student who I will refer to as The Con Artist. He has not stopped trying to con me since the first time I saw him. He always has a perfectly reasonable explanation for why it was all right for him to be doing whatever it was. If he manages to get an education, I would not be surprised to see him running for public office some day.

My first meeting with The Con Artist was in the morning, when the students go to breakfast before classes. Coming back from breakfast, he was talking with one of his little friends. When I stopped them to take points for talking in line, out came the plausible explanation

Con Artist: "He's my cousin, and our aunt just died, and I was asking him when the funeral was."

Me: "That's very sad, now I need to see your point sheet."

The second time was when I caught him accessing Bebo in the library. This is not only strictly against the district rules, but you have to access a proxy site to even get there, as it is blocked by our filter. Out he goes, referral is written. Later in the day, he comes to see me.

Con Artist: "I just wanted to apologize for getting on Bebo, it won't happen again."

Me: "Look, this is not my rule, this is the district's rule. I don't personally care, I just have to enforce the rule."

CA: "I guess you already wrote the referral, huh?"

Me: "Yes, it's been turned in."

CA: "Since I got taken to the office, can I come in this hour to work on my project?"

Me: "If your teacher says it's okay."

Teacher approves, The Con Artist comes in and gets on a computer. A few minutes later, I look up, and he's accessing Bebo again.

Me: "You need to log off the computer and go back to your class."

CA: "Oh, I thought since you said you didn't care, it was okay if I got on."

Me: "A: even though I don't personally care what site you get on, it is the district's policy and I am going to enforce it. B: you told me you were going to work on your project."

CA: "I will, I will"

I think, but cannot prove, that he got on Bebo a third time that day. After this day, I decided that I was tired of him trying to con me, and now, when he comes into the library, I let his teachers know that I am not allowing him on the computers. However, he still comes in, with the rest of his class. Yesterday, he left a book in the library; this was the second book I found yesterday that belonged to other school libraries in The District. When he asked me about it this morning, I told him that I had found it, and that he could get it when his class came in to the library today.

However, knowing The Con Artist as I have come to, I decided to do some checking in The District's union catalog (for non-librarians, we can see the books the other schools have, too). Lo and behold, the book had not been checked out from its home library. It must have just walked off the shelf. I phoned the librarian to let her know and put the book in interdepartmental mail to go back to its home.

When I told The Con Artist, he was furious that I had done anything with "his book" which he had been planning to return to the library himself. I enumerated for him the fact that it was not his book, it was the library's book, he had not checked it out, which would give him some small claim on it, and that he was not legally allowed on the campus of his old school while enrolled at The Alternative School (indeed, they could arrest him for doing so).

But logic failed to avert the wrath of The Con Artist. This is the first time I've seen him other than calm. He wandered around the library for the rest of the hour usually as close to me as possible, so I could overhear as he complained to his fellow students of the great injustice I had done to him. During the course of this, he mentioned that he had gotten the book "at his ex-girlfriend's house last weekend." So it might not be him that walked out of the library with the book; of course, this is The Con Artist, so there's really no telling.

So he's mad at me. He's going to tell the principal on me. Somehow, I think I'll survive.