one last hypothetical
It's the second-to-last day for seniors. Many of the seniors are actually out today -- attending a ceremony of some sort for state scholars. As a result, your morning class has three students, only one of which is a senior.
This senior is very bright, but regularly refuses to do his work and often resists your classroom management techniques. He knows full well that he does not need your class to graduate. His overall attitude towards you and the class could be described as "critical" -- his temper flares up if you press him about anything, and you get tired of dealing with a student who so obviously doesn't want to be there.
So on a day like today, where you aren't doing all that much anyway (finishing up the final project), and its his second-to-last day, you don't feel like giving him a hard time. He is very, very upbeat today. He comes in happily, begins quietly working on his project, contributes to the discussion, and even compliments you and the class.
But he is, to your eyes, obviously drunk.
What do you do?
Comments
You are only required to act when your students know that you know that the student is drunk. Under those circumstances you HAVE to set a good example. If the students don't know that you know, you run a cost-benefit analysis:
As a first-year white person, the last thing you need to do is make yourself irrevocably reviled within your community. If you force this issue, and it results in his not graduating, your position within the community is severely hampered. Right and wrong won't really matter; you fucked up this kid's senior year, and you'll be held responsible for it.
Eventually, when you've established your credentials, you can make the kids play by your rules. Until then--to some extent--you have to play by your community's. And chances are, lots of the parents and community members did the same thing this senior has done.
This answer isn't inspiring, it wouldn't find a place in "Freedom Writers", and people may well (rightly) revile you for it, but it gives you a chance to fight the good fight for a longer period of time, and that's what this job is about. It's not about making a one time statement and going down in a blaze of (self-righteous) glory. It's about finding a way (probably painful), to do what you can to help as many kids as will accept it.