Laugh or Cry?

What do you do when a child wants so badly not to be in school that they'll try anything and everything to be sent home?

The assistant principal made his way down to my room today and asked me to check through my troubled girl's desk. I asked what I was checking for and he told me a cell phone. I assumed she had taken one from her family, or a classmate. Nope - the assistant principal's phone. Took it right off his desk when she was sent to the office for another behavior problem this morning. Not only that, but when she was called down to the office and knew she was busted, she ditched it in the bathroom on the way down, then lied to both the principal and the assistant principal about it. If I hadn't seen her with it, she'd be sitting there still, denying everything. Pardon my French, but that takes some balls!

So what do I do when a child is behaving that badly, hoping to be removed from school? I focus on the good ones, the ones who make me smile, like T.

Today, when my partner teacher checked in on his group's project, it wasn't going so well. She took one look at it and said, "What did you do?"
His reply, "I don't know, but I'm ashamed of myself."

You have to laugh, or you'll cry; and how can you not laugh at a statement like that?