Baja St. Martin

Life is quiet here in lower St. Martin. The weather remains calm – little rain, no wind. The squirrels are chattering loudly outside. About to bloom or now blooming – my golden raintree, Confederate rose, hibiscus, pentas, swamp hibiscus, chrysanthemums. Everything is so pretty.
A group of Assumption High seniors were suspended for three days recently after they toilet-paper rolled the trees in the yard of an assistant principal over homecoming weekend. Tree rolling is not new and seldom punished but this time someone in the group shot her house with a paint ball gun and then dumped bags of salt on her lawn.
An ordinance was discovered which said since the lady was an AHS staff member, by extension her yard was school property and that was a no-no. The 20 or so seniors were not allowed to attend the homecoming dance, be in the court, not on Student Council, National Honor Society and a bunch of other activities. The AHS Mustangs just lost a football game 51-0 to someone and even that was blamed a bit on the fact that some of the players had not been allowed to play due to the suspension.
They were not happy campers nor were their parents.
The sheriff sort of clinched things in my mind when he remarked that the kids were lucky they didn’t get shot since practically everyone has guns in their houses these days. Perhaps it is a lesson learned the easy way.
The infamous “bomb” incident at Settoon Towing at least brought something good. Shelby Daigle and Carolyn Guidry, bus drivers for Belle River, were commended as Employees of the Month for their handling of bus-loads of kids when they had to wait in lines of traffic while the State Police did whatever they did that day. Personally, I think driving a school bus is a major accomplishment at the best of times. Sitting stuck in traffic for more than an hour could have been horrible but these two drivers handled things well and no mayhem resulted.
My dad was a schoolteacher and a bus driver. I, of course, was one of his passengers because the bus parked at our house. I got the job of cleaning it every night! The route my dad drove was a long one, way, way out into the country, so there was plenty of time to get into mischief. Also, in those days, bus drivers had more liberty to punish bad kids so the day a whole bus-load got into a squirt gun battle ( you have to be old to remember those) and a mis-aimed shot sent water trickling down the front bus window, my dad slammed on the brakes, searched everyone and kicked the major culprits off the bus to walk home. I don’t remember all the details but I do remember my Dad brought all the “weapons” home and he and I had a “squirting” battle in our house, much to my mother’s distress!
Along with a whole lot of other Assumption Parish teachers, I attended a local meeting to find out what the heck I’m supposed to do about my OGB (Office of Group Benefits) health insurance. Turned out nobody else knew what to do either. Deadlines are changing, plans are changing, lawsuits pending and a whole bunch of teachers had been sent the wrong packets or none at all.
There were retirees with Medicare, retirees with no Medicare, active employees with Medicare, active employees with no Medicare, and I think maybe more. The meeting was worth it for me only because I sat next to a retired friend who was in the same category as I and we compared notes on what we would probably do. But now the deadline has moved to Nov. 30 and it was suggested that we not do anything until nearly then just in case of more changes. What a mess!

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be emailed at lcooke9417@bellsouth.net.