Fainting and teenagers

My teaching partner fainted today.  In the middle of class.  This, was a completely new experience for me, and apparently one that happens somewhat regularly for her.  Would have been nice to know a little earlier this year, Jess!  :-)

So, my kids and I were having a nice, calm conversation about their dress code at the luncheon this coming Tuesday, when Norma BURST into my room yelling, "Ms. Forster!  Ms. Hanzlik just fainted and is laying on the ground!"  Instantly, 8 of my boys jump out of their desk and started running toward the door.
"SIT DOWN NOW!"  I said to them as forcefully as I could.  The class was in their seat and quiet within 3 seconds.  I turned back toward Norma, and with a look of sheer terror in her eyes, she followed me back into the other room where I found10 kids standing around Jessica freaking out.  Suddenly I realized that I have no idea what to do.  64 horrified students and Jessica laying on the floor, white as a ghost . . what the hell do I do?     Calmly, yet sternly, I ordered everyone back to their seats and knelt down beside her.  I toldone of the girls to call the office, and after 2 or 3 tries, they somehow could not get the phone to work and came back out into the room.  "Go.  Run down to the office and tell Ms. Perez,"  and they took off sprinting down the hallway.  I looked straight at Danna and told her to go get Mr. Denneen.  Suddenly I hear shouting coming from my own classroom, in the form of what sounded like them telling each other to shutup.  I stopped what I was doing, walked over, threatened them with silent work for all of next week if I had to come back in there again.  They were instantaneously quiet.  Stupid kids.  :-)

 After what seemed like an eternity (in reality about 30 seconds) of stroking her hair and calling her name, she opened her eyes.  Face still white as a ghost, she said "Yeah, I'm okay," and closed her eyes again.  I was fully expecting her to sit up, or at least attempt to, but no. She closed her eyes again and just laid there.  About a week later, she started to stir and moved her hands and legs a bit.  At this point, I look up to find Sandra and Jenny standing in the classroom, while Jessica is trying to sit up.  Thankfully, she didn't hit her head when she fell.  By the time I go outside to talk to Nubia and Tom, she was sitting up and talking.  She didn't want to take the day off, she just went in the office and sat for a while.

Apparently the last time this happened was the first day of grad school in Oxford.  Yikes.  At least this time she had friends around her!  After everything was said and done, I had my kids read for a few minutes and I just sat down at my table, laughed and cried at the same time.