Shipped Back to D.R.

A funny story for the new year --- The very last day of school in 2005, December 23rd to be exact, one of my students, a particularly disruptive young man, decided to test my limits. All of the students were excited that it was the last day of school before the vacation. I was giving a short test on Holes and literary analysis and Miguel started talking with another student. I asked him to stop, told him to move back to his seat, and repeated my request several times. He finally decided to move and, while in route to his assigned seat, began mumbling under his breath. I couldn't understand most of what he was saying but I did catch the words "la puta" [translation - b****] and the response of another student, "Miguel, ella sabe espanol" [She knows Spanish]. At that moment twenty-three pairs of eyes turned toward me to see exactly how I would respond. Needless to say, Miguel was sent out of the classroom and, as decided by the dean of discipline, he was suspended for the rest of the day.
The humorous part of this story happens when I return to school after my short, yet enjoyable holiday vacation. I planned on having Miguel read a letter of apology in front of the entire class to make it clear that type kind of language, that verbal abuse would not be accepted in my classroom. Well, Miguel wasn't there on January 3rd and I didn't make much of it. I continued on with the regular schedule planning, teaching, and grading. The next day I heard the big news -- Miguel's mother had sent him to the Dominican Republic for good. I guess he won't be disrupting my class anymore.