The May 24 workshop went as planned. There were soccer team tryouts for the boys, so attendance was lower than usual - only about 10 kids total. I don't know how many comics they produced yet.
One unfortunate incident occurred with the second group. A 12 year old girl - Lakisha - decided it would be fun to start disrupting the activities by making noises. She refused to listen to me or the other supervisor. Then she began to harass the other students by insulting their clothes and started referring to me as "cracker," the first time that particular epithet has been thrown at me, though not my first encounter with racism (most the slurs directed at me in the past have tended to focus on my non-Caucasian half rather than my Celtic origins).
Several students left because of Lakisha's verbal abuse and others moved into the hallway to do their work without distractions. Because of her actions, Lakisha was banned from the CCP and the DYCLC.
Lakisha is only the second child ever to be barred from participating in the CCP. The first such barring was in the library when a young male child started kicking another student and then tried to stab the other with his pencil. He was promptly expelled from the CCP and from the library in general.
Despite the incident, I'm trying to keep a positive outlook. Several of the students still managed to make some good comics and I managed to pass out several comic tournament registration forms. Hopefully I can convince some of the DYCLC kids to attend the CMT.
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