The Explosion

While I earned top grades in high school, my downfall has always been math with science taking a close second. It’s not that I did poorly in science classes, I just didn’t enjoy it like I did social studies, language arts, journalism, and foreign languages. Consequently, I found myself lacking a year of science for my college prep when I reached the end of my junior year. That meant that I had no choice, I would have to take a science class during my senior year.

Reluctantly, I showed up to my third period Biology class on the first day of school and found out that I was the only senior in a class full of sophomores. To top things off, I would be late for class every day of the school year because I was the person that read led the flag salute and read the announcements over the P.A. system for the whole school. It turned out not to be too bad because all the sophomores looked up to me and, mostly, because the teacher was really kind of cute. He wasn’t cute in the traditional teenage girl’s eyes. Mr. Gallo was just a normal every day kind of guy, balding even, but he had a gleam in his eyes and a cute smile and was very friendly and accessible.

I remember riding the Booster Bus to football games and making sure that I rode on the bus that Mr. Gallo was chaperoning. We would tease him and make up songs about him and make him blush. There was a whole group of us that had developed a crush on him. We weren’t really forward about it but he knew we were all kind of ga-ga over him.

Mr. Gallo was also a great science teacher. He made it entertaining and easy to understand. When we had to do labs, he was right there to help us get through anything gory. He didn’t make us do anything we really couldn’t stomach, yet he did make sure we learned the material that we were responsible for mastering.

One day, he told us we were going to watch him do a lab in front of the class. We would not be doing it ourselves because it involved using acid and a Bunsen burner and it was dangerous to have 30+ students with a potential explosive device at each table. We all pulled our chairs to the front of the room and arranged them so we could see what he was doing at his work table in the front of the room. Mr. Gallo made sure that we could all see. He had the shorter students sit up front for unobstructed views, which meant I was in the first row. Mr. Gallo began the experiment by showing us everything he was doing and asking us questions about what he should do next and what we might expect, etc. Suddenly, without warning, there was an explosion that shattered the glass tube (is it called a beaker?) on the Bunsen burner and sent acid flying all over the place! Mr. Gallo’s first concern was for us, his students. He immediately yelled for us to get back and asked if we were all okay. He instructed one student at the back of the room to run to the class next door and get the teacher to come immediately and asked another student to get on the intercom and tell the office we needed the nurse with her emergency bag in the room right away. He started calling each of us by name and making sure we were okay and instructed us to go to the sinks at the back of the room and wash off any exposed skin, especially on our faces. It was only when there was another adult in the room and when he made sure we were all moving to wash off any acid that gotten on us that he walked to a sink and began to wash the acid off of himself. He had gotten it on his shirt and on his arms (he was wearing a short sleeved shirt) and on his hands.

In the end, it was all okay. None of the students had been injured. Some of us had our clothing burned by the acid (including my most prized piece of clothing, a dark green brushed corduroy blazer) but we were all spared any physical injury, largely due to Mr. Gallo’s quick thinking and command during an emergency. Mr. Gallo, however, did end up getting acid burns on his forearms and on his hands. He was okay but he did sustain those burns, mostly because he took care of his students before washing the acid off of himself. We were his priority and thanks to him, we were all safe.

I learned a lot in Biology that year. A lot of it was not about Biology but about priorities and taking care of one’s charges before taking care of oneself and I still remember Mr. Gallo several times a week.