Many years ago, I was tasked to organise a learning journey to a military installation. The journey involved multiple levels and many buses had to be involved. On the day of the journey, only one bus came. I called the hotline and they scrambled some buses.
I remember Vice-Principal saying that as the IC, I should reach first so a few colleagues and I loaded up the bus.
Once we reached the installation, an unexpected thing happened.
One of the students had a live round, which was identified in an X-ray screening when they had to clear security.
A live round? Where did this student get the live round from? It was a live round keychain that the student had bought during a trip to Australia. Or at least that was his claim. It had somehow made its way into Singapore.
“Can you make a decision?” One of the military men asked me. Make what decision? I was just a normal teacher.
Finally, the military folks decided not to prosecute the student and to give me the round in a Ziploc bag. I was to give it to my school leader.
Once I reached school, I handed the Ziploc bag to the principal. My understanding is that it was placed in a safe. Life is filled with all sorts of surprises.