When in the classroom with a bunch of teenagers, one must be prepared for just about anything and everything to happen. Keep in mind, this preparation isn’t for daily use - it’s those once a year, or hopefully, once a career moments, that a teacher must think quickly and calmly.

I have had my fair share of fights occur in the classroom. From taunting stand-offs between two male students, to full out hair pulling on the floor claw matching between to female students. Once I caught while I was in the hallway on may way to lunch. I saw a colleague in complete distress. I simply walked in. Put my lunch bag down. Got between the two girls. Grabbed a hand from each one of them. And sat down on their legs and declared, “That’s enough!”

During my second year of teaching, I even had a student depants another, and I mean a full frontal show occurred. So, naturally, I had to press the “call” button and get a dean or a deans’ assistant to  haul the student responsible away.

This year put me into a new spot. I had a student go into a full out seizure during a lesson. I started class as usual, with a journal prompt for them to ponder that was relevant to the text we were working with. This particular day, I decided to show a video to complement their answers since we were discussing war and American involvement that worked with Tim O’Brien’s “Where have you gone, Charming Billy?” I noticed this one student was starting to doze, which was not like him to do so. After the video clip, I asked him if he was alright, which he replied a vibrant “yes” and he appeared to wake himself up. Within a minute’s time of asking him this simple question, his eyes rolled back into his head, he went completely limp and slowly fell out of his desk. The second I saw him rolls down, I slid and fell to my knees to catch him. Another student of mine realized what was going on, and decided to help me hold him as the seizure had its way with this student.

Some students in the class started to cry. Some were in shock. Some wanted to help, but didn’t know what to do. I remained on my knees with the student cradled in my arms with his face to the side to prevent choking. There was no foam or any discharge from his mouth with the exception of a little drool. I looked around and asked my students to press that “call” button, get another teacher and even dial 911. They did. My colleague took my students, most of them since two remained with me, into her room. Then a dean, a deans’ assistant and an administrator rolled in as we waited for the paramedics. Once they arrived, I felt a huge relief and realized that my student will be alright.

During the next day I found out why this student, who did not have a history or any other seizures before, had one: A late night of video games. He was playing Halo all night with his brother instead of being asleep like his father thought he was. Now I’m sure you all have heard these stories - that playing these games can cause seizures. Well, here’s proof that the warnings are not full of baloney.