The door leading into the main office at Bessemer School was a beautiful oak door with about eight small glass panes in it so you could see into the office area from the hall. It was the clerk’s office, and it had the usual bench with a bulletin board over it.
“In the old days” almost all children went home for lunch, and the lunch hour for the teachers was just that. As I came back from lunch about ten minutes before the bell was to ring, I approached the office door and saw through the windows of the door that five or six teachers were standing in a row about five feet back from the bench and the bulletin board. Surely they weren’t reading the bulletin board!
Just as I reached for the doorknob, one teacher took a step toward the bench, and I heard a blood-curdling scream! The teacher stepped back, the scream stopped and I looked through the window to see a little boy sitting very straight up on the bench. Another teacher stepped forward, another scream, and I grabbed the doorknob and entered the office reception area. There was a little first grade boy with his coat zipped up to the top, catching the skin of his neck!
I sent the teachers to their rooms (and they were glad to go!). I then sat down on the bench and convinced him that I could help and after a while he allowed me to get closer and to look at the zipper. He finally let me get my hands on his coat and then the zipper fastener and with a quick jerk on it, it was off, with just a drop of blood on his neck.
photo credit here
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