Today I felt pretty hard

I am a peaceful man.  Once I was called a gentle giant by an eight year old.  I was so touched that I did not hit him for his sloppy cliché. The point though, is that when there is need, I am capable.

Today we began class by arranging the desks into groups of four.  I was in the middle of the shuffling desks when behind me, the boy charged.  He began to shove another student, who was seated, into his desk, punching him in the back and in the head.  He wabbled furiously in Korean.  He was not being jockular.  In school, as far as I can tell, students are allowed to fight each other up to the point of moderate bleeding as long as they are smiling.  There were no smiles here though, only a vicious ape-grin as one boy dominated the other.  I stepped between them and told the attacker, "you aren't hitting him."  It was a very idealistic thing to say, as he'd just hit him repeatedly.  So intense was this boys furry though, that he attempted to get around me.  Me!  An unwise move for any twelve year old, especially a pudgy one so clearly lacking in agility.  His disregard insulted me on a very basic level and in my head I could hear my fight music.

I took him, quite gently, under his chin with my hand and brought my face down to his level so that he was forced to look me in the eyes and acknowledge my status as wall and supreme arbiter in this altercation, but again he tugged away, trying to maintain sight on his target and talk more trash. 

That was it.

I clamped me hands down on his arms just above the elbows, effectively ending the little tyrant's reign of fists.  My coteacher was still busy directing traffic on the other side of the class.  "Mrs. Yi," I called to her, "this boy really wants to fight."  Mrs. Yi dragged the gangster into the hallway and likely beat him.  I didn't go out to watch, but stayed in the classroom and began the lesson, imagining myself starring along side Michelle Pfeiffer in the Gangster's Paradise driven 1995 blockbuster that was 'Dangerous Minds'.