I cannot believe how stupid people can be.
First, I had to deal with a fight that broke out between my students. This wasn't just a little dispute over a broken reed, but it was a full on hair-pulling face-scratching brawl between two female flutes. Anyone who isn't afraid of a girl fight has obviously never seen one. When girls fight, they pull out all the stops. They throw water, scream, and kick the girl who's down. Having taught high school band for four years now, I've learned about many different kinds of fights.
From what I could tell, these girls weren't fighting over anything in particular. They were just on edge in the same space and somehow set each other off. Here in Mineplex High School, it happens all the time. After dragging them to administration, I went back to teaching the songs: Colonial Song and Foundry.
Our stellar low brass would have carried us through Colonial Song if not for a flat second flute and a saxophone that was playing an entirely different chord progression. After checking some notes and making sure our new contrabass clarinetist wasn't going to pass out, we ran some parts again to make sure everything was good. It was. Our piccolo player took a tacet for this one.
Next came Foundry. One of my first clarinet's reeds decided to just completely snap; the thing broke cleanly into two parts. Considering that this clarinetist took excellent care of their reeds, this came as a surprise. After changing reeds, we ran the beginning and some percussion stuff again. For some reason, they weren't all together. Having been a percussionist myself, I knew exactly what was wrong: They weren't listening to each other.
"Why aren't you guys listening to each other?"
"We are."
"Doesn't sound like it. Play it again." Again, they had the same disconnect. What has gotten into the percussion section? Normally, they can blend their sounds like butter, even on a sight read. After the bell rang, they all left except for Catalina, my aide and contrabass clarinetist.
"Mr. Navoa," I handed the originals to Catalina for her to copy. "I've been following #Caitgate for a while." Oh no. Not this again. "I need to do this project for my journalism class on a current event. May I ask a few questions?"
"Go right ahead." I was prepared to answer anything.
"What is your stance on Caitgate?"
"Caitlin Netherfield was harassed into suicide. I have screenshots and URLs to prove it." Currently, the organization had turned towards pretending to sympathize with those who mourned her death.
"Can you show me?"
"Some of the things they said I cannot show to students, but I do have a few that may interest you." As Catalina read the screenshots, she covered her mouth in shock.
"Who would do such a thing?"
"These people, I guess. It's a battle lost and won."
"Why do you say that?"
"The battle's lost because a key figure in our lives passed on in such a horrible way, but it's also won because it exposes something about the organization that not a lot of people are aware of."
"Thank you for your time." Catalina took the copies and left. I went on Twitter to find that some idiot spammed me with borderline nonsensical DMs.
If you're going to pick a side, pick the right side! You side with Caitlin and her edgelord friends!
Quit pretending that you didn't see any problems with her opinions.
You're an ableist oppressive homophobic bigot.
I'll dox you if you don't side with us.
We'll do it to your students too.
Good. Keep going. You're shooting yourself in the foot. I took screenshots as they went on.
You can't see that your privilege is a problem because you're committing serious microaggressions with it.
What are those?
You enforce the gender binary by tone policing.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
I checked their biography and, sure enough, this user identified themselves as a nonbinary girl with xirself pronouns and an anarcho-communist totalitarian. They were 28 years old too. Despite my initial impulses, I decided not to respond.
Again, I've lost and won.
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