I am a parent volunteer and mentor to the local high school’s robotics club, and at last night’s meeting the usual teenage horseplay got WAY out of hand. I was working with one of the calmer students to fix a software problem with the robot, and had to go retrieve some papers, when I saw one of the other students flat on his back on the floor, witha very dazed expression on his face, and 3 or 4 other guys standing around laughing at him. At first, I thought the student (I’ll call him Mr. Happy) was coming out of a grand mal seizure, but when he came around, Mr. Happy started in with “That was sooooo cool!” and the like. I put 2 and 2 together, and directly asked the most likely culprit (Da Perp), “Did you put him in a sleeper hold?” Da Perp answered “Yea.” I told him to not do it again, and went back to my task with the other student and the programming. Big mistake.
It wasn’t 2 minutes later when I looked up, and that asshat Da Perp had another guy in a sleeper hold. I hollered at him to stop, so Da Perp lets go of victim #2, who drops to the floor, clunking his head on a workbench on the way down. V2 gets up, and there’s no gash or dent on his temple, but he winds up at the outpatient clinic anyway to be checked out.
There was a time when I was young and stupid myself, and I have my own share of horseplay stories, but how thick headed can a 15 year old be to be told to stop doing something, and still do it a minute later? He’ll be sitting out of school a couple of days, but I doubt he’ll realize that he cost me an hour’s pay when I had to leave work to swear out a statement, or how close he came to personally killing a very worthwhile extracurricular activity.
I’m sure I’ll be dreaming tonight of beating his ass with a razor strop…
You should have kicked him out the first time. Me thinks “don’t do that again” isn’t quite enough for knocking someone out, consenting or not. What were YOU thinking? You are supposed to be the adult there right?
That wasn’t very nice, Rhum Runner. You can do better than that.
You have learned, vunderbob, that hormonally-challenged teenaged boys aren’t always able to control themselves, nor are many of them likely to. It’s a part of working with them – don’t take an eye off of them.
Many of the teenaged boys are perfectly fine, though, so be thankful when you get to deal with one of them.
This morning, I was thinking I should have kicked him out, but that’s a case of 20/20 hindsight.
The authority question has been a little ambiguous. The faculty sponsor has the ultimate say, and is usually around, but he was with another student in a different part of the building. Usually, the kids would calm down when told to do so. I’m not trying to pass the buck on this, I share part of the responsibility because I wasn’t paying attention. The next time the horseplay starts, however, I will be a real asshole.
To apply a sleeper, stand behind the victim, and put one arm around the neck with the voicebox in the crook of the elbow. Push on the back of the neck with the forearm of the other arm while trying to bend the elbow around the neck.
If done right, the carotid arteries are shut off, and the victim passes out in about 10 seconds.
It looks a lot like the move the movie toughguys use to break a neck.
Do better? ok, I’ll try to do better. vunderbob I applaud you for being a parent that is involved with the school, I wish more parents would take time to teach and share with their children the way you are doing. I hope if I am a parent someday I will be able to do something like that, and frankly the robot club sounds really cool.
Having said all that, when the little fucker rendered the first kid unconscious you should have kicked his ass out or called the police. A simple “don’t do that again” might suffice for pushing and shoving, or running around etc, but is simply grossly inadequate for a sleeper hold. What if kid number two hadn’t woken up? Or had suffered brain damage as a result of the lack of blood? Or what if he had split his head open on the table?
Lordy, I know that feeling. “I shoulda kicked that kid out before he did x.” However, since I am not psychic, I cannot foresee that the kid in question (almost always a young male of the species) has turned off the little part of his brain that’s actually functioning and won’t pull the same shit again. I guess I expect too much of the young boys. Someday the world will realize the wisdom of my plan to have all boys spend the years from 12-18 in cryogenic sleep.
And Rhum Runner re: your incredibly arrogant remark from your golden pinnacle: I am appending a “you” to a gutteral Anglo-Saxon syllable and sending it right over. Please share your formula for predicting the actions of hormonally-driven adolescent boys with the rest of us as it would make everyone’s life easier.
Hey Spaz I didn’t say he should have predicted the second one, I said he should have responded properly to the first. I await my syllable. Please deliver it to: Rhum Runner
101 Golden Pinnacle, Apt. 444
Top of the World, IL 60582
You know, I’m no psychic, but I’d say that seeing a “hormonally driven boy” put a sleeper hold on someone is a good sign that he’ll behave with poor judgement or further violence again.
And I, for one, and sick of hearing that “hormonally-challenged teenaged boys aren’t always able to control themselves, nor are many of them likely to.” I think that that sounds like a cop-out for shitty behavior. Can’t control or won’t control?
Rhum Runner, you’re a classic example of the finger-pointing ignoramus who has all the answers on paper, but has never faced the music himself.
How glib. How theoretical. How pie-in-the-sky. NEWS FLASH!! You don’t have to be a parent to volunteer at a school, big mouth. Get off your ass and DO SOMETHING if you think you’d be so good at it. Then we’ll see how well you deal with adolescent foolishness.
Right Dave. A classic ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ right? No criticism if you haven’t been in the situation? Thanks, but I don’t find that too persuasive. I don’t have to stick my hand in the pot of boiling water to know it burns. No, I think I can safely sit here and say that, despite my inexperience working with the little darlings, I would know to kick Hulk Hogan Jr. out of the club after his first assault.
But you know, and I really must tell you, when you are sitting on the Golden Pinnacle things are so very much clearer than they must be for you mere mortals. I won’t hold your inability to see the obvious against you, please don’t hold my perfection against me.
uh you are missing the point, along with Rhum Runner.
the kids were doing it cause its FUN.
no violence involved.
it also works if you bend over, hyperventilate yourself and then stand up while a friend pushes their thumbs into your caroted and Jugulars at the same time,
you have some really cool dreams and tend to wake up wondering where the hell you are and tingling all over, pretty cool if you ask me.
No, of course you don’t find that too persuasive, since it requires you to do something besides sit around pontificating. The “boiling water” analogy is weak. Try this one…“even though I’ve never been in a cage with starving Bengal tigers, I’d know how to calm them down.” Again, I say, prove it. Get in the cage and calm them down. Working with a group of kids has a totally different dynamic than working with one kid, or working with something you know may be dangerous if you don’t respect it. I don’t find your argument very pursuasive. In fact, it just reinforces my perception of your ignorance.
Just so you know, I agree with you. I think the kid should have been disciplined more harshly than just by a mere warning. I think you’re right about that. What chaps my ass about your post is your high and mighty attitude, blaming the OP just as much as the perp. He did recognize his responsibility, if you read the OP. IMO, the worst that can be said of his behavior is that he underestimated the maturity level of a young adult in the robot club.
About a year or two ago, there was an news story about a kid who had brought a taser to school. Other kids were asking to be shocked with this thing. I believe these were young teenagers and, you guessed it, they were all boys. There was recently an article about young men ‘surfing’ on trains.
Teenagers are indestructible. At least they think they are (I did). It’s a wonder many (self included) survive. Most are paid back for their foolishness…they become parents of teenage boys.
[Before people come in with righteous indignation, yes, I know that not 100% of teenage boys are lacking in higher thought functions - only 99.9%]
It might becalled a sleeper hold, but in no way does it cause you to sleep. Unconscious is NOT asleep. You shouldn’t refer to it as if it’s just an alternative to a sleeping pill.