Not up to Snuff

Posted in Education

Not up to Snuff

At my last school, if a student was suspected of having smoked marijuana s/he was taken to the office. While being questioned by one of the vice-principals the student would be asked to hold their hands out. The V-P would then lean in and smell their finger tips.

On this one occasion a high school boy was standing before a V-P. He was asked to hold his hands out straight. Now I won’t mention exactly where he then put his right hand, but after scratching around for a bit he pulled it out of his pants and then held both hands out straight. The V-P looked at his hands. She looked at him. She looked back at his hands.

“You can put your hands down now”, she said. She decided to forego the sniffer test.

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Published by Gary Caines

Gary Caines is a retired teacher. During his 32 year career he taught in Newfoundland and New Brunswick and in private and public schools. He has been a principal, vice-principal, district supervisor and, something of which he is quite proud, has taught at least 1 subject at every grade level – yes, that includes kindergarten. Over the years he has served as Aide-de-Camp for three Lieutenant Governors and retired as a navigator from the Naval Reserve with the rank of Lieutenant-Commander. He directed and produced school musicals and coached rugby at four different high schools (he was still playing the game at 58). He is a recording artist, a past-master of the Masonic Lodge and, for ten years, served as a volunteer ambulance driver. He has climbed mountains in BC and been bitten by mosquitoes in Labrador. He has backpacked in Europe and sung in Irish pubs. Gary has sailed from Halifax to Thunder Bay and return. He once taught a class in Appenzell, Switzerland and twice performed with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He is a part-president of his curling club and of Imperial Theatre. Currently he is the founder and artistic director of the Fundy Sea Shanty Festival. Oh, and something else of which he is proud, he has two beautiful children and three incredibly beautiful grandchildren. He has a lot of stories to tell.

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