One of her go-to threats, for example is the threat that if the students continue to treat the bathroom poorly (writing mean things about students, smearing their feces on the wall etc..), then the school administration will place surveillance cameras in the bathroom. Mind you, we don't even have enough money at my school to buy fans for my room (more on that later). I don't know where we would acquire these funds for the cameras or the outcry that would come from the Honduran ACLU (if one existed). Clearly these threats are empty... a fact of which students and teachers alike are aware.
This week brought us an entirely new and tenfold more outlandish threat than the old camera in the bathrooms go-to. Whenever it rains, the students turn into banchees, splashing in puddles, sliding on their knees and creating all sorts of sheninanigans (See past post here for a description of one of such events). This week, Miss Amarylus, tapped into a current event and preyed on the fears of these young children (and the fear that has gripped an uninformed Honduras populus at large) regarding radioactive exposure. She told our students that they must stay out of the rain, because the news in Costa Rica says that there is a radioactive cloud traveling toward Central America and if they are exposed to the rain, it could burn their skin and cause cancer.
When this new threat was posed, the Gringo teachers' jaws dropped in unison. I couldn't refrain myself from letting out an audible guffaw of disbelief. The students turned around. Oops. I don't mean to undermine the school authority but, SERIOUSLY?! A radioactive cloud?!!!!
I told all of my students in my science class that Miss Amarylus had been misinformed and they were relieved. I left from this experience feeling a bit confused, though. I am not sure if Miss Amarylus made this statement as an intense "boogeyman" method of maintaining order, or if she actually believes that the rain is radioactive. I'm not sure which concept is more frightening.
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