Middle School Crushes

What comes along with the territory of working with middle schoolers is dealing with pubescent teenagers. Throw that into the severe autism arena and you get a bunch of boys who don't respond to their hormones appropriately.

The staff has been teasing me all year about how J320 (one of my favorite students!) has a crush on me. Several times through the year, he has gallop-sprinted over to me and gotten a few inches away from my face but I always manage to block him. Yesterday morning, we were all trailing onto campus and he followed me through the school gate. I had my hands full of bags and my coffee. Normally, I'll ask the kids to hold onto something for me, but knowing him, he'd chug my coffee in a heartbeat. He was following me to the classroom, but before I could put my stuff down for me to grab my keys to unlock the door, he sprinted to me and kissed me on the cheek. (Although I RARELY ever scream) I totally screamed and pushed him away while dropping all of my stuff. Dude! Thank goodness it was just on the cheeks!

About two hours later, the kids were lining up to go to the bathroom and I had my side to them while I was on my computer. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw T320 coming towards me. It was like slow motion -- he slowly hobbled over and came up behind me and slapped my butt! I started tripping on his aide, thinking he set T320 up to it b/c his aide saw the whole thing go down and didn't even stop the kid! But I guess T320 did it all out of his own delight.

Gees...I felt violated...twice.