walking back from lunch...

Last week I was walking my students from the cafeteria to my classroom after lunch. We were lined up outside the classroom and Mikea started vomiting - profusely - all over the hallway. And it wasn't just once - we're talking four or five good vomits. I've had students throw up before, but never quite so energetically or with so much quantity. I asked my paraprofessional to grab the trashcan, and I got it under Mikea for the last one or two heaves. Well, the rest of the students were still standing in line, fascinated by the sight of Mikea displaying everything they had for lunch. Then the smell started to hit, and some of the other kids began sympathy-vomiting. So I was standing in the hallway, one hand over my nose so I wouldn't throw up as well, trying to get the trashcan under whichever student was gagging. I felt a bit like a basketball player, trying to be anywhere the action was. Eventually most of the students either had emptied their stomachs or been ushered into the room by my paraprofessional, while I escorted Mikea and the other vomiters to the nurse to get cleaned up. Occasionally one of them would give a hiccup or a cough, and I'd leap to get the trashcan under them. I suppose I was a little jumpy, but who wouldn't be if they just survived a rash of vomiting in the hallway?