Another Day In Paradise

 On Halloween, I met our other PE coach bringing a child in from the playground. I heard him first, but the tears from the kid didn't prepare me for what I was going to see. 

Blood dripping down the side of the kid's head, over his face, to his chin, onto his shirt. His tears making a red smear on one side as he wiped at them with the back of his hand. 

This was not something that could be fixed with a band-aid.

On the playground, so many things can be fixed with a band-aid. Some of the tiniest scrapes and the goriest wounds can be covered with an adhesive strip and a kind word. Generally speaking, it's the attention that carries all the healing weight. When things really go south, we might send them to the office for an ice pack. 

Not this head wound. This got a direct escort to a place where parents could be called and all the medical attention we have to muster could be dropped on this case. Not a band-aid.

And we needed the story. What could have generated this scary scene? Not a skinned knee. This was a scalp wound. 

Turns out another kid found a chunk of the playground that was loose, and in a fit of first grade pique, he hurled it with all his first grade might at the boy who had, moments ago, been his friend. Some perceived slight had caused the thrower to do harm to his classmate. "He was messing with me," was the explanation we were able to divine. Well, if the intent was to keep his ex-friend from "messing with him" any further, he accomplished his goal. 

As well as sending most of the school into a tizzy. Those who witnessed it were quick to share it with those who had not. The legend grew, but not by much since a sight like that wasn't something that needed a lot of embellishment. 

The good news is that once the victim was cleaned up, the laceration did not require stitches or an emergency room visit. A special bandage and the ever-present ice pack along with a day off school. Then the requisite meeting with parents as the kids try and navigate a path back to being on the same playground together again. 

The punch line in all of this is that both sets of parents showed up for a meeting with the principal. They agreed on one thing: The school was responsible. Maybe a band-aid would help.