I have seen fear, and it is teaching middle school

I can confidently say that today was my craziest subbing day to record. The kind of day that makes one think, "You know, maybe ideas in Battle Royale aren't so 'deplorable' as they seem at first." In fact, my day ended up with me prematurely dismissing the class by throwing them out into the hall to break up a three-person fight. I hope none of the kids go home with hand print-shaped bruises on their arms from me hauling the scrappers off each other.
I spent the afternoon in a sixth-grade class without any lesson plans (which might not have done any good anyhow) and without any support from the meager staff in the building. It started when I walked them to their third floor classroom and found the door locked. These kids couldn't stand still for a second, let alone wait patiently in a line while we waited for the key to arrive. As a matter of fact, there was wrestling, acrobatics, screaming (certainly), play fighting, not-so-play fighting, and swearing among other things. Total bedlam.
I finally got them into the room, thinking that an enclosed environment might calm them down a bit and let me get some control. Far from it, now that they were out of the ear and eyeshot of teachers who know their names and wield more than imaginary power, they seemed to truly blossom into the conniving, manipulative, aggressive, ill-mannered, foul-mouthed little angels that I would be on my own with for the next three hours.
I found myself using their (legitimate or contrived) requests to use the bathroom as a bargaining chip in getting them to cool their jets.
"If anyone needs to use the restroom I am looking for quiet students with raised hands sitting in desks."
"Mr. H if you don't let me go I am gonna walk out of here."
"If you want to go, just follow my instructions and sit at your desk quietly with a raised hand."
"I am sitting quietly! but you're not letting me go!"
"You know what? I am going to send this other pair right now and when they get back, if you are sitting quietly we'll talk then."
"That's stupid and you are being stupid!"
"...sigh."
I never thought I would actually wish bladder discomfort on another person, but all of a sudden I found myself tempted to make dripping sounds and spill the water from my bottle.
"If you don't let my go I am going to pee in my pants!"
"Well... you'll be the one with pee in your pants."
That would break my heart if you peed in your pants in front of your friends. Just break it right in two.

If was a ridiculous and even comical day but those reactions merely camouflage what was actually a heartbreaking and up-close encounter with the disease of poverty. Everything about this school and its population bore the hallmark traits of chronic and endemic socio-economic peril. With 97% free lunch, 20.4% in reading and 12.5% in math passing state tests and a straight 20% passing basic achievement test standards. These numbers mean a lot more as soon as one steps into a classroom and watches and listens to the classroom chatter and interacts academically with the students. The girls had to bring toilet paper and hand sanatizer from the classroom because the washrooms didn't have any. There was one crotchety old security guard who came in for a minute when things were getting crazy and made the class promise to behave. This place is doomed to fail.

But I got me some good stories out of the deal.