P Paul and Rick fought on Tuesday before the winter break, and once again on Wednesday, classes resumed. The first argument was over cigarette butts. Paul had just finished his last cigarette on the ground despite a black metal ashtray sitting next to him. Rick, the building's maintenance man, walked by as Paul’s butt hit the ground.
In a polite way to Rick but a rude way to Paul, Rick barked that Paul should use the ashtray. Paul yelled where Rick could put the ashtray. The second argument continued from the first over the handling of cigarette butts but was also fueled by Paul’s disregard for a clean space. Rick had just mopped the floor, and Paul walked across it instead of around it.
As the full-time maintenance man at the Omni Center, Rick moved automatically in speech and action. His job was manly enough - unplugging toilets, changing light bulbs, cleaning up vomit - without someone intentionally and immediately destroying what he had just finished cleaning. On this second day of blatant disregard for common courtesy, Rick lost his self-restraint and came to our office. He loudly complained and explained to us about Paul. He asked us to do something to stop Paul, or he would.
I agreed with Rick and understood his frustration with our students. My colleagues and I wished Paul would quit being rude. But we didn’t know how to stop him or other students in the Omni adult learning center. Many students ignored the rules and procedures. But for these two incidents, Paul was the student caught in them.
We told Rick that we would talk to Paul. The director of the adult learning center took Paul aside and said that we would have to call the police if he acted this way again, especially if he threatened Rick. She advised Paul to avoid Rick and save himself from further trouble.
Paul is one of the endless students at the adult learning center, hoping to make up for the basic educational skills they did not learn when they were young. So many of them are lacking much more than just the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Dozens come without homes, teeth, cars, jobs, food, and hope. We try to encourage them, but we know the center is here because society doesn’t know what else to do with