I had my first “incident” at Pemberton today. Actually, it happened at the end of the day yesterday, but I didn’t find out about it until today. Crystal and I had our four-year-old class out on the playground. I had been watching Michael and some of his other classmates playing at the chin-up bars very nicely when another student came up that needed his shoe tied. I guess while my attention was on the shoe, Michael somehow lost his balance and banged his front tooth against one of the support poles for the chin-up bars, chipping it in the process. It was sort of a freak accident, and Michael toughed it out and didn’t complain to either Crystal or me. We lined the children up to go inside to get their school bags, took them to the front benches to wait for their ride, and put him into the car without ever seeing his tooth.
Today, his mother called to let us know what had happened and to ask if we knew anything about it. Crystal and I were both genuinely shocked and apologetic, but we couldn’t add anything to her knowledge of the incident, because neither of us was aware it had even happened. He’s such a tough little guy to take a hit like that and not cry or at least tell us about it! We were amazed. Most children would be screaming bloody murder if something like that had happened to them. I feel badly about it, but I feel sure the children weren’t doing anything to cause the accident, because they had been playing well together, and Michael has already shown himself to be very good at following the safety rules. He often reminds his classmates to obey them! Plus, Michael’s mom shared that he told her no one had pushed him; he just fell. I hope his tooth will be okay.