Elijah.

The four-year-old boy screamed the high pitched shrill of a distraught child. His tiny body shook with the force of it as he clenched the sides of the blue plastic chair he was being restrained in. One… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… the scream stops. Several seconds pass as the other children stare at the disturbance. They must be used to this by now, I think to my self as I watch for their initial reactions. The child starts screaming again, one of the other children bursts into tears, stumbles over to me and clings to my leg. As I scoop her up into my arms the screaming stops again, the boys slight body is trembling more now as he flails his legs in an attempt to reach anything close to him. The teacher holding him against the chair shuts their eyes and rests their forehead against the back of the chair as the child puts their head on the seat of the chair between their legs. Several seconds pass. The girl in my arms continues to cry softly against my shoulder. The boys body tenses, his forehead comes off the seat and he inhales deeply. Here it comes again… He screams once more. Three more of the others scramble over to me and cling to my sides, pressing their tiny bodies against me as tightly as they can, as if their classmates scream might blow them away if they don’t. One… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine… ten… he stops, letting his body sag, folded in half, forehead resting on the seat between his shaking knees. His breath comes in ragged gasps as he attempts replace the air in his lungs that he just expelled. The teacher behind him lifts her head off the chair. She is crying.

“Miss Binkey, please call the office, tell them that Elijah is having a meltdown.” She says softly as the boy tenses for another scream. His next scream last the whole time it takes me to detach the children at my legs, walk to the phone and dial the number. The boy stops screaming just in time for the secretary to tell me that no one is available to come up right now, I look to the teacher and shake my head. She places her head on the back of the chair again as Elijah inhales once more. We have to keep him the rest of the class. I glance at the clock, Katayah still in my arms. Only 30 minutes more. Elijah screams again.