Oh woe is me!

I have the house all to myself today. That's normally a good thing. In this case, it's not such a good thing.
Braden's on a scout camping trip to NY to go spelunking and won't be back until mid-afternoon tomorrow. That's a good thing. He'll have a blast, and I'll get a break from feeding him. Keith's working, which is also a good thing because he's taking me out to dinner tonight...he doesn't know it yet, but he is.
JJ was supposed to be here this weekend, but now he's not allowed to come. This is the bad thing. And, the worst part is it's all his fault. On Thursday, him and another boy jokingly, albeit wrongly, made a remark about having a riot at school. They had no intention of actually having one. They had no reason to have one. They didn't tell any other students. JJ is definitely no Norma Rae. Anyway, a staff member overheard them, and reported it to the office (as he should have done). When they questioned JJ about it, he became indignant that they'd think he was really going to start a riot. He refused to explain himself. He would not talk to the principal...who only wanted an explanation. When the day was nearly over, the principal tried to talk to him again and JJ's only response was, "How was your riot?" I tried to talk to him, but he would only say, "I don't have to explain myself to anyone. There was no riot." Then he just completely ignored me. Closed his eyes and wouldn't respond to a thing I said to him. That night he called to say he was sorry for ignoring me, which he added, was a big thing, because he hates to apologize. (And, I know it was a big step for him to do that.) The next morning, the principal gave him one more shot at explaining himself, which the other boy had done and got in no trouble at all. But, JJ dug his heels in and wouldn't say anything. So, now the school is threatening to press charges and he wasn't allowed to come on Friday. He has to go on Monday with his caseworker. Needless to say, he got moved back to the Acopian Center at the home and is allowed to have no contact with me. None. That's the part that makes no sense to me.
If the school goes through with pressing charges, there goes any shot of him coming to live with us. Even if they don't press charges, lord only knows how long they'll postpone the fostering. Now, I know he's definitely wrong here. I don't think he should get off scott free. But, if one of your kids did something stupid like this, I'm sure he would be grounded, at least. But, no matter what the punishment, he'd still be with his family. Feeling loved. Punished, but loved.
One of our favorite staff workers at the Acopian called last night. "Guess who I've got back again?" he asked. "He's not allowed to talk to you, but I thought I'd sneak him a quick phone call," and he put JJ on the phone. Keith told him he was disappointed in him and asked how he was doing. I told him we loved him and he'd better think long and hard about what he was going to say to the principal on Monday. And that there's a lot riding on this so he'd better do what's right. Then I told him that we loved him again.
So, that's how I got a day to myself.