It is hard to know what is worse for Seagull supporters in ARL .. losing a 2012 semifinal, or the 2013 Grand Final .. each game was theirs to win. The Manly supporters are known as Sea Eagles, so they might never forgive me for asking. There is a lot of that going around. In the space of five minutes at 4:30 PM at Cabramatta station, near Broomfield st exit, I was assaulted twice, tonight. I don't blame daylight savings, although considering the hour and it is a long weekend just before the grand final of the ARL, feelings would be high. Neither assault was vicious like a glassing, but both leave a sour taste.

The first assault was as I left the train and waited for an elevator. There was a family waiting already, so I maneuvered to allow them first right of entry, but a large middle aged woman tried to shoulder me aside. I would have none of it, and easily slipped in and moved to the back to allow others on, which nobody else does .. even the young family crowded the entrance to be first off too. One of the reasons I like to be first on is to set the example of standing at the back. The woman was unhappy she lost her attempt to horn in, and hit my backpack and told me loudly she didn't appreciate not being able to push aside a fat man (I'm paraphrasing as she wasn't that polite). She then went to the next elevator .. and I took the steps.

At the bottom of the steps, a young man was on a bicycle. I paid him no attention, and pushed the crossing button and waited for the light to turn green. The boy stopped riding the bike and said from behind me "Do you remember me you fucking pedophile arsehole?" "No" I truthfully answered. "You taught at my fucking school you fucking pedophile bastard." "What school was that?" "Canley Vale. Don't you fucking remember me?" He spits at me, saliva landing on my pants. He is shaping to fight. I cross the street. "Aaron Herbert?" "Yeah that's me you fucking peddo what is your fat fucking name?"

I kept an eye out behind me as I walked down the street to my church for an afternoon prayer meeting. I don't know if it was Aaron. Aaron was in year 8 circa 2005 when I knew him. He had behavioural issues that were off the chart and my Head Teacher, Helen Best, was undermining me. If I sent a student to her who was misbehaving in class, she would make it worse. So I stopped referring students to her. She couldn't place Aaron in any other class, and couldn't have him in her class. So she placed Aaron in my class with strict instructions to refer him to her for any misbehaviour. Aaron got sent to her after he observed to the class that my breasts were large and I required a bra. It made Helen Giggle. But he escalated his behaviour following that referral and it became sexualised. I have never done anything to be abused by him in that way as he accosted me. He was suspended from school, sent to a specialist behavioural management unit until he could legally not go to school. I saw him again circa 2007 after he left school at the same elevator I'd been accosted at by the large woman earlier this evening. He called me a pedophile then too. So I asked Helen Best (in 2007) why it was that he would call that out to me, and she shrugged.

I was a good teacher. I deserved better than the support Helen denied me.