Actually, your suggested "choices," "the principal's office, school counselor, detention, suspension, expulsion," all undermine one's authority as a teacher. A teacher doesn't assert his/her authority by sending his/her student away. Rather, they forsake their authority.

When I taught, 2% of the teachers were behind 98% of "Go to the office!"

The more kids they sent, the more authority they foresaked, which meant they sent kids to the principal even more. Come April, it was chaos in those few classrooms because they'd sent all their authority to the principal.

We should ask the girls!

Hell, when I was young and harrassed by pretty girls, if someone had only asked me, I would have said, "Please, ban those cheerleaders from the locker room. Please build them their own locker room."

And for those girls who hit puberty before me and made me feel so insecure when I was at my most vulnerable, for they had boobs and I didn't, those girls should have been banned too...to their own locker room.

And then there was this girl who picked at her skin until she could peel it and then she ate it. That girl definitely needed her own locker room.

As regards periods, we all now how sensitive ALL girls can be to girls' bleeding. I'm off to watch "Carrie," which is a classical primer in girl-to-girl bonding. Toodles!

JennyLynn, I recently read that trans teens are 4 times more likely to be murdered than young black males. Do you think those trans teens live rosy lives and then are suddenly murdered? Or do you think that they're beaten and tormented along the way? But hey, you dismiss it as "hip" to consider the torment of trans teens. Hip like sunglasses. Hip like backwards hats.

For those of you truly concerned about sexual desire, transfer all lesbians to the boys' locker rooms and all gay guys to the girls' locker rooms. Bi kids have to change in the halls.

Or just keep everyone where they are and hire more staff to supervise and keep all kids safe, but hey, hey, hey, why spend money on schools when we need even more secret compounds for torturing and more bombs to drop on more cities?

This made me laugh: "So, see Ms. Capote, you made me think. So pick up your martini and your cigarette holder and give yourself a good cheer!"

Thanks for that!

I hope, when I went heavily at you, that at least I made you laugh a little too. ;-)

Sorry 'bout all you endure. Truly. I wish you had a safe place to pee. Hell, I wish you had safe places for everything you want to do. Our culture is obsessed with gender.

"Gal pal," Leftychris? Cool!

Don't go away, jennylynn. You're funny and brave, for it takes great courage to change your mind. Like Leftychris, I like to tussle, but you can always tame with wit, which you have in abundance.

Cool.

You can't see it, but my tail is wagging.

You betcha.

@AKASmith

I once taught in an open school and had the ginormous good luck of teaching beside a woman who had the gaze. It was a face stripped of affect and she'd just watch a naughty child until the child looked away. Just like that, she won...and with minimal energy. It was an art deco intervention: clean, sleek, and elegant.

What I learned from Cesar is the power of posture. I now work with hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of kids at a time and I control their mass with posture and a flat face. The posture conveys my authority and my eyes are a blank canvas, upon which they paint their worst fears...or their greatest hopes. Once you establish your authority nonverbally, you're free to be whatever you want. It's truly amazing...and you see Cesar do the same thing. Once he establishes an authority over a dog, he can sit back, laugh, and relax.

I also suggest Jim Fay's "Love and Logic" series.

any book by Ronnie Heifetz. Heifetz writes about our innate proclivity to revert under stress...and not just to revert to a 9-year old self, but to mimic our parents. So, at the moment when we most need our lucidity, we're suddenly reciting what mom said, which was a recitation of what grandma said, which was a recitation of what great-grandma said. We're not blessed by our ancestors: we're cursed. Unless, of course, they were masterful parents.

When a woman says, "I sound like my mom," that's why.

Under stress, cognitive gears seize and we simply repeat what we once heard, however ineffectual.

"Never win them. Make them win you."

George W would make a fascinating case study, if weren't for his torturing profligate financial spending, and gay baiting. His notion of alpha dogness reminds me of an 8-year old bully's: never apologize, never concede, and puff out your chest, as if you've gone fang to fang and found yourself forever unwanting.

Three more differences:

Craig belongs to a party that through gay-bashing, crippled the Constitution, is acting like Japan circa 1938, and tortures in the name of the pink baby Jesus.

Craig is one of dozens of Republicans who assert that God Hates F*gs, but sucks cock.

Craig belongs to the party of Jesus, a party that asserts that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, but a party that refuses to stone the serial adulterer, Rush Limbaugh, and a party that refused to stone the adulterer, Ronnie Reagan.

But Elephantman does make a valid comparison, for too many of Hillary's policies are right wingy.