Before the holiday, I repeatedly and sternly warned the students not to secretly go to the river to play in the water.  
But Zaylee in my class treated my words like empty air and even led a group of classmates to go down to the river to catch fish together.  
On the way, he suffered a muscle cramp and nearly choked on the water.  
Yet he pointed at my nose and cursed.  
"Why do you have so many damn rules every day? Everything seems to be forbidden. If you hadn't come to the river to catch us, wouldn't he have been so scared that he got a leg cramp? You're fully responsible!"  
"You're just some lousy teacher. Do you really think you're so important? My son goes wherever he wants. Why do you get to control him?"  
I repeatedly tried to persuade them, saying that there had been a lot of rain that summer, and once flooding occurred, people near the river would have no time to escape.  
But Zaylee's mother didn't believe it at all:  
"Stop trying to scare people with bullshit! The water level in this ditch has been this low for years. What could possibly happen?"  
"Having a teacher like you at school is just bad luck! You don't teach properly. You just cause trouble all day! If you want to work, just work. If you don't, get lost!"  
As she wished, I resigned and left.  
Later, the provincial authorities issued a heavy rainstorm warning.  
The other students realized the water level was rising rapidly and didn't dare stay near the river. They quickly packed up and left.  
Only Zaylee remained unconcerned, loudly mocking others for being timid.

# Chapter 1

Before the holiday, I repeatedly and sternly warned the students not to secretly go to the river to play in the water.

But Zaylee in my class treated my words like empty air and even led a group of classmates to go down to the river to catch fish together.

On the way, he suffered a muscle cramp and nearly choked on the water.

Yet he pointed at my nose and cursed.

"Why do you have so many damn rules every day? Everything seems to be forbidden. If you hadn’t come to the river to catch us, wouldn’t he have been so scared that he got a leg cramp? You’re fully responsible!"

“You’re just some lousy teacher. Do you really think you’re so important? My son goes wherever he wants. Why do you get to control him?”

I repeatedly tried to persuade them, saying that there had been a lot of rain that summer, and once flooding occurred, people near the river would have no time to escape.

But Zaylee’s mother didn’t believe it at all:

“Stop trying to scare people with bullshit! The water level in this ditch has been this low for years. What could possibly happen?”

“Having a teacher like you at school is just bad luck! You don’t teach properly. You just cause trouble all day! If you want to work, just work. If you don’t, get lost!”

As she wished, I resigned and left.

Later, the provincial authorities issued a heavy rainstorm warning.

The other students realized the water level was rising rapidly and didn’t dare stay near the river. They quickly packed up and left.

Only Zaylee remained unconcerned, loudly mocking others for being timid.

There was a river in the county, and the water level was usually pretty low. Every holiday, kids would go down to play in the water.

But I'd already warned my students countless times.

Safety came first. Without adult supervision, going into the river was strictly prohibited.

But I didn't expect that, on the afternoon of the second day of the holiday, I'd get a message from my colleague, Wallace Gibbs.

\[Ms. Hinton, Zaylee is getting the boys from your class together to go catch fish by the river. He says he knows a good spot.\]

\[There are already seven or eight kids who've gone with him.\]

I just skimmed the message and felt my blood boil.

Zaylee was the kind of kid who made every teacher's life a nightmare.

He was failing his classes, never listened to anyone, and always argued just for the sake of it.

He craved attention, always trying to be different, and loved to butt heads with teachers whenever he could.

Where to find this story The Warning No One Listened To