Emma Lee Henderson

So Albert Erb is a hardcore christian.  He hires a new 6th grade teacher.  Who does he pick?  Another hard core christian.  One Emma Lee Henderson.  A preacher's wife from Marionville.  The preacher had previously been a missionary in Ecuador.

So obviously I end up in Henderson's 6th grade class.  In going with the theme of this blog, being in this class was truly a strange experience.  Henderson brought a record player into class.  And some albums.  Stuff I had never heard before.  So there was a girl in the class, who guess what, her father was a preacher in town.  Bonnie Kaiser.  So obviously this Kaiser chick gets preferential treatment.  And she can put on any album she wants.  So she has one with a song she likes.  And obviously she plays it often.  12, 15, 20 times a day.  For the ENTIRE school year.  By the end, I wanted to throw up over that tune.

First 3 days of class, Henderson spends going over the class rules.  Covers the entire chalkboard with her rules.  So the rules stay there the entire school year.  And the chalkboard never gets used for anything else the entire school year.

One of Henderson's rules was no chewing gum.  There was a kid in the class named Richard Rogers.  His parents was always letting him bring candy and gum to class.  And Richard would go ahead and chew his gum in class.  And Henderson would have these confrontations with Richard over the chewing gum.  Richard would refuse to spit it in the trash can.  Telling Henderson "That costs money!".  Eventually he would spit it out.  This scene was repeated several times.

Another time Richard had one of his toys at his desk.  Henderson was struggling with him to take it away from him to put it in the closet.  That scene struck me as hilarious.  So I am sitting there laughing out loud.  Henderson is still trying to pull the toy away from Richard, while looking at me in a way that made the scene even funnier.

Over half way thru the school year, Richard shoved Henderson in some type of argument.  So Henderson goes and whines to Erb.  And gets Richard put in another class.

In the fall, the school holds an open house.  And parents can check with their children's progress with teachers.  So I wasn't doing well.  And mom is headed towards my classroom to talk to henderson.  Of course Erb knows about mom's meltdowns.  So he is standing in the lobby talking to another parent.  Erb tells me to stay with him.  Mom yells for me to come with her.  Erb tries to override moms order, telling me to stay with him.  Mom yells at me again to come with her.  And again Erb orders me to stay with him.  Well I am forced to make the obvious choice.  Do I want to live with psycho bitch meltdowns because I didn't listen to her?  So I run away from Erb, and hear him politely excuse himself from the other parent.  Erb follows to the classroom.  So mom asks Henderson how I am doing.  Henderson tells mom she has been told that she is "emotionally unstable", and will not be able to discuss my progress with her.  But that she will discuss my progress with my father outside of her presence.  So mo is obviously pissed.  But by 6th grade the beating had stopped.  And I was a s big as mom.  So mom was obviously only going to attack someone unable to defend themselves.  So Erb tells Henderson "You did exactly what I told you not to do".  And sends her home early from the open house.  And tells her to report to his office at 6 am the next morning.  At which time he will have decided if she still has a job.  So mom is pissed.  And starts screaming "Fire her Erb!".  Henderson kept her job for the time being.

There was a few other kids who gave Henderson all the grief they could muster.  Steve Bradam.  Tim Clapper.  Who mounted a door stop in a sexual way.  Jimmy Morris.  At that very open house I saw Jimmy Morris taking grief off his dad over his desk put in the corner.  I saw Richard Rogers stick a wire in an electrical outlet, shooting out a fountain of sparks.

So Erb had told Henderson about my moms meltdowns.  So as a hardcore christian, Henderson makes it her objective to get me to snitch mom out.  Which isn't gonna happen.  I have been the object of moms rage too many times to risk anymore shit taking off her.  So Henderson starts calling me over to her desk, and ordering me to snitch.  And I refuse, over and over.  So one day Henderson orders me to Erbs office.  Erb isn't there.  So I sit there and eventually Erb shows up, and asks me why I am there.  I don't know and I say so.  Just that Henderson ordered me there.  So Erb, calls Henderson on the intercom.  Henderson says she wants Erb to beat the information out of me.    Erb tells Henderson "He has taken enough beatings".  And sends me back to class.

So Henderson asks to see the superintendent.  And asks to have my dad, who is also a teacher, to be forced to have a conference with her.  Apparently dad had been previously asked, and refused.  So dad shows up, and Henderson tells dad he is "morally obligated" to beat the information out of me.  Dad tells her he is not gonna be lectured by a teacher without tenure.  And walks away.  Dad had tenure by this point.

So Henderson tries a this with Bonnie Kaiser, the preacher's kid.  Which I will address in another posting.

So we get down to the last few days of school.  And Henderson calls Erb on the intercom.  And tells him she needs to sign a contract for the following year.  Erb comes up in person and tells her the school board voted not to offer her another contract.  So Henderson asks why, and Erb tells her his best guess is Reverend Kaiser got to the school board.  And Henderson is not his favorite person.  I will cover this in another posting.

So Emma Lee Henderson spends last 3 days of the school year crying, and telling us we are the reason she will never teach again.

Henderson wrote a bunch of weird stuff on my report card,  And when my mom saw it, she went down to Erb, and raised hell with him.  All Erb said was that Henderson  no longer taught there.
This was truly a strange experience that lasted an entire school year.