You will have no discipline problems...

Well, China is growing up. Ben said something to Frank that he didn't like. Frank hit Ben with his fist. I asked Frank to step outside the class so we could talk, and on the way out of the classroom, Frank picked a bottle up off of Ben's desk and struck him in the head with it. Result: lots of blood and 3 stitches in the head for Ben. I told the principal that Frank should be removed from school, but they both received a one week suspension and returned to class. They are both seniors, and will be going to the US next year at a university or community college (for them, probably a community college as their command of English is poor). The principal asked Frank to write an apology letter, responding to the phrase, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Here is his essay, unedited:

Firstly of all .all the problems could be solved through the civilized function. It means any contradictions can be addressed by the words which are the greatest invention during the development of human. There is old saying in Chinese that the most stupid people will use violence to solve problem. As to me I was the stupid gay .because I used the violence to deal the simple problem .originally is a very simple classmate contradiction. But I did the worst business. To hurt the people around me. Even so serious.Sometimes our words may not hurt the others .But the way we interview might cause great harm to the people.here is a storyAn ancient king dreamed all his teeth had faled out.He sent for a wise man to explain his dream to him:the dream means that all your relatives will die and you will be left alone.the king was very angry and threw the interpreter into prison.He then sent for another interpreter who said,”Congratulations!king!You will live many more years.In fact you will survivi all your relatives Long live the King”These two interpreters gave the same mean.But there are also differences between them some words will make people angry,some are not.Which would you prefer?So words have power we do need use them carefully.

Security. Really Ben's words didn't listen to me and damage myself esteem. to made me can not stand for it .but it didn't hurt  my bones .that is true .I should not give him such a serious injury in order to my self-respect .As a high school student, the responsibility is love the collective ,solidarity students, help each other and relations to other. In stand of doing the harm things to brothers. I do make mistake and I will say it to. To protect the brothers is my responsibility. And I will focus on it.

Finally. I do believe the sticks and stones will hurt people and the words do not give a people hurt so deep.so am i.i am not hurt deeper than Ben.i apologize for the mistake‍ 

Frank wrote a second essay as well but this one makes more sense.

And so for some reason I thought when I came over here that I would not run into this type of stuff. In fact, in 24 years of teaching I have never had violence of this nature in my classroom. The principal never had either - it was the first time he had encountered something like this in China, and he was not sure how to handle it. He praised me on my handling of it...

So they are back now. Learned a lesson? Perhaps. Ben has been working harder (why he was also suspended for saying some words I don't know). Frank has been nonproductive. They are a challenging class - all of the worst students have been tracked together. It's hard to imagine them being successful in the US. But it's the land of opportunity, right?