Lies And Another Job I Once Had

I was a Teacher's Aid for LA Unified for a couple of years. I wanted to see if I liked it well enough to go back to school and get my teaching credentials. I didn't. But the last year was at a local elementary school here in Westchester and I divided my time between two 5th grade teachers and did playground supervision at morning break and at lunch. The teachers had me very involved. I was doing special tutoring for the dummies in one class and running an art class in the other. The playground was quite large and the "Official" playground supervisor was this very large woman who came out and sat down at the top of the yard by the classrooms. Well, before my advent, there wasn't an adult at the other end of the yard and the large woman (who reminded me a lot of a larger rounder Red Queen from Alice In Wonderland) ('Off with their heads!') never ever walked down the yard, so anything went. I soon discovered that the younger kids were being taken for their money and belongings by the fifth graders. I investigated, kept my eyes open and wanted to understand the whole thing before I decided what to do. The two ring leaders were best friends from one of the classes I worked in. One kid was a straight A student and the other was one of the dummies that could barely read. (He wasn't stupid, but he didn't think he had to read)
Some of my Boy Scouts that were in Middle School and High School with my twins had gone to this elementary school. I questioned them. And apparently, the extortion ring was self-perpetuating and had been going on every year for at least six or seven years. The littler kids grew up to take the place of the ones that left for middle school.
So, one morning when I was supposed to tutor the dummies in reading vocabulary, I wrote 'Extortion' one the board and asked the kids (and one of my ringleaders) what it meant. No one knew so I very carefully explained the ins and out of it to them. How I could go over and put my arm around a kid's shoulder (again, my ringleader) and say 'That's a real cool chain you have on, can I see that?' 'Oh, take it off and let me see it."
Anyway, I explained how some of the teachers and some of the officials at the school had asked us aids to keep a look out because they had understood that there were some things that were not legal that were taking place (and the kids now understood that extortion could be viewed as illegal) and how if it came to light, it might mean that some of the kids might not get to graduate and go on to middle school. (They were all 3-4 months away from the end of their 5th grade year.) At morning break recess, my dummy ringleader was in deep discussion with his buddy. It all stopped that day. I hope I broke the cycle, but I didn't go back the next year. I was done. Teaching wasn't exactly what I wanted. I am good at extortion though.