Foolish Wisdom
19 New Guy in Town
TROUBLE FOUND ME on the first day of school.
I was really looking forward to this year. I had both Coach Mitchell for biology and Coach Hancock for US Government. At least one of my friends was in every one of my classes and I had at least one class with each of my friends. I even had Algebra II with Sarah and Brenda, and German III with Sora.
It was 7:45 and I was in my first period class—biology—when the seldom used public address system crackled to life. Mr. Mitchell sighed and sank into his seat. “Pay attention,” he said.
“Students of St. Joe Valley Junior and Senior High School. Welcome to a new year of learning and adventure. This, for those of you who are new here this year, is Principal Darnell. I will not normally be making announcements to the school as a whole unless we are in an assembly. However, the school board has directed me to call your attention to various conduct rule changes that have gone into effect with the beginning of school. It is my responsibility to bring these to your attention and the responsibility of your teachers to enforce these rules, no matter what their personal opinions are regarding them. I have directed your first period teachers to hand out a sheet that summarizes the school board’s new rules. In general, these fall into three categories that have been outlined and summarized here. The first category is a clarification of the dress code. St. Joe Valley has long had a code requiring shirts or blouses with collars and has expressly forbidden wearing shorts on normal school days. Please read the new requirements and be sure to ask a question of your teachers or school administrators if something is not clear. Second, the school board has seen fit to clarify the school’s PDA policy. Public display of affection is prohibited on school grounds and specific behaviors are itemized in this bulletin. Finally, the school board has adopted a zero tolerance policy in regards to violence, threats, and blatant defiance of the rules. Please be sure to carefully read these clarifications as penalties extend to all parties involved, not only to perpetrators. This is the end of this announcement. We will be happy to answer all questions regarding these rule changes with the words the school board has supplied us. Please have a safe and healthy school year.”
The PA system clicked and after a bunch of static it went silent. Mr. Mitchell handed out the bulletin that Mr. Darnell mentioned and began his lecture. He didn’t address anything in the bulletin and we didn’t pay any attention to what he was saying until we’d read it. Then I think we were all too shocked to say anything until the bell rang. The hallways were filled with noise, though, as we had four minutes to make it to the next class. I saw several of the bulletins wadded up and simply thrown on the floor. This could get bad.
I glanced around the cafeteria as I entered. There wasn’t a teacher in the room. I think they were all hiding. I walked up to our table and my special eight all stood. They had defiance in their eyes and I was right with them. I set down my tray, hugged Hannah and kissed her. Then Sarah, Sam, Rose, Liz, and Whitney. When Brenda and Carl stood up to hug and kiss, Doug and Rhiannon followed them. Lionel and Sugar were on their feet before Geoff and Sora. Finally, Josh and Denise stood to hug and kiss. I looked up and saw Cassie.
“May I?” she asked. I took her in my arms and hugged her and gave her the same kiss.
“That’s a PDA,” Sandra Jessiolowski pronounced from nearby. “You’re all going to get written up.”
“No,” I said turning to her. I caught Sam by the hand and she stood to follow me. “That was just a standard greeting among the people of my tribe. This is a PDA.” I pulled Sam to me and she rushed to my lips to put a kiss there that everyone would absolutely know was a display of affection. “Yum,” I said. “Now you know the difference and can correctly identify it the next time.”
“You’re still going to get written up.”
“By whom?” I asked. “There are no teachers in the cafeteria. Certainly, you wouldn’t report us. You’ve obviously read the entire bulletin. You know that the no tolerance section indicates that people reporting violations will be considered troublemakers and will be subject to the same penalties as the perpetrators. That’s supposed to keep the incidence of malicious reporting down. Do you want to be written up?”
“That’s not fair.”
“I think that’s what the school board is trying to teach us. Life’s not fair.” I don’t know who started it, but someone halfway across the cafeteria started clapping. All of a sudden everyone was clapping and I was in the middle of it.
“What are we supposed to do, Brian?” somebody yelled when the clapping died down. Shit! What did I just walk into?
“Um… Nothing, I guess.”
“Boo!”
“No. Listen to me for a minute. I’ll tell you a story. Some of you remember a year and a half ago I got beat up.” There were a lot of head nods and murmurs. “I had five good friends that some of you remember as the best front five the St. Joe Valley football team ever fielded. They were going to take out Kirby and his gang. I asked them to do nothing. It took me an entire period to convince them and I’m hoping I don’t have to do that here. I’d like to eat my lunch. The thing is that taking out that thug required planning and all of us working together. We can’t just start flouting the rules randomly. Where do we stop? We need to walk carefully while a few of us put together a plan. Let’s think about it and get me messages and volunteers to work on the plan. Aside from that, don’t do anything. Don’t purposefully flout the code. If you get caught at something by someone who has to report you, you’ll have to take the strokes. But let’s do our best to not raise any suspicions of a student rebellion until we know we are in a position to win.” I just sat down and started eating my lunch. The lunchroom started buzzing with people talking. Either they’d agree with what I said and we’d end up with some kind of united front, or they’d all go off in their own direction. I didn’t care.
“Excuse me. Brian, you hardly know me, but I hope you know I wouldn’t really rat on you,” Sandra said from beside our table. “I was trying to make a point. Obviously, kissing half a dozen girls was just a show. I don’t like this rule any more than you guys do. I’ll have to throw out half my wardrobe. My skirts are too short and I show too much. I wouldn’t write you up.” I looked at her and tried to gauge how truthful she was being. The ‘obviously’ thing irritated me a little, but what did she know?
“Yes, you would,” I said at last. Her brow creased and she started to protest. “Hear me out, Sandra. You are a senior, but there’s enough time to get this put back together so it won’t affect your standing in your class. You need to write this up and take one for the team. I’m going to ask you one favor when you write it up. Only identify me as the party involved in the illegal PDA with ‘some girl.’ You don’t even know the girls at our table, do you? Good.” I didn’t give her time to respond. I knew she recognized a few of them. “We need to find out exactly how serious the principal is about the penalties. Certainly, he can’t expect to suspend the entire student body. We just don’t know what’s going on and we need more information. Write me up and stand beside me when we’re called to the principal’s office. We’ll both get our first offense written warning. From then on, we’ll be good little boys and girls. Okay?” She hesitated a moment and everyone at our table was looking at me in horror. Sandra nodded.
“I don’t know why I’d trust a sophomore to make this decision,” she said, “except I know Jessica Barnes—or used to. I’ll do it because she’d want me to.” Sandra walked away.
“Brian, what are we really going to do?” Carl asked. “I can’t go through a day without holding Brenda’s hand or sneaking a little kiss. I love her, dude.”
“School’s the only place Josh and I see each other,” Denise said. “I am going to kiss my man.”
“All I can say is be really careful the next few days. I don’t think any students will report anyone under the new guidelines. Teachers are required to. Just try to give us time to do this right.”
“The following people are to report to the principal’s office at the close of school today. This is not optional. This call takes precedence over all other after-school activities. Students who ride buses will be given the opportunity to call their parents after our conference. Failure to appear at the principal’s office at this time will result in immediate suspension for the rest of the week,” the voice droned. It wasn’t Principal Darnell. In fact, I don’t think it was a staff person. A dozen students worked in the office at various times of the day during what would be their study hall period. I was pretty sure this girl’s voice was one of the student staff. We listened to a list of about thirty names being called. It was Thursday afternoon and I’d already arranged for a ride after school. It was sneaky to get parents involved and mad at their kids for missing the bus because they broke school rules.
“You have now officially been issued written warnings for violating a school rule,” Principal Darnell said as we were handed the pink slips. Why is it that bad news is always delivered on pink slips? “A carbon copy of this warning has been placed in your student file. If you go the rest of the year without a repeat offense, the warning will be removed and will not appear on your permanent record. A second violation will result in detention to be served on Saturday for six hours. A third violation will result in a one-day suspension with no make-up of work due on that day. That includes tests.” He was reading from a prepared statement and I didn’t think he’d written it.
“Excuse me, Principal Darnell,” I said. Everyone turned to look at me.
“Yes, Mr. Frost.”
“I’d just like a clarification so I don’t misstep. Is the second violation that you mentioned of any school rule, or of the same school rule?”
“Hmm.” Mr. Darnell read through the statement again. “I have only the school board’s statements to go by,” he said. A slight smile seemed to curl his lip. “Until further notice, I interpret the board’s statement to mean of the same rule classification. You…” He looked at my pink slip. “You would receive detention for a second PDA violation as they are described in the bulletin.” He glanced at Sandra’s slip. “You would receive detention for another violation of the zero tolerance policy. The rest of you, I believe, would receive detention for a violation of dress code. That seems to be our most common offense.”
“Thank you for the clarification, sir.”
“You are very welcome. If there are no further questions, I would like the following people to remain for a few more minutes. The rest of you may go.” He read off a list of eight names. I looked and realized he had held two people from each class. Brenda, of course, had been written up by a teacher for violation of dress code. She had been stretching in class and exposed her stomach. I wondered if it was her own test.
“Did you do that on purpose?” I asked.
“We needed more than one test case.” Sandra was also retained and Ty, our JV basketball center. I didn’t know the freshmen or juniors.
“You eight hold no elected offices in your classes, but you are acknowledged leaders,” Mr. Darnell started. “I’m sorry I don’t have seats for all of you, but this will only take a few minutes. Officially, none of what you are about to hear was ever said. I may retire this year.” We were all taken back by that. It’s pretty unheard of for a principal to announce his retirement to a bunch of reprimanded students. “Two years ago, a group calling themselves ‘Concerned Taxpayers’ were elected to the school board. They were given a clear majority, supposedly to rein in the expenses associated with our proposed new high school, but also reflecting a strong socially strict group. Last year, another of the seven positions went to a member of this party. That gives them a super-majority—five out of seven seats. They cannot be overturned. However, they serve two-year terms. Four must be re-elected this year. Bear that in mind. Under their direction, Dr. Silverstone was forced to resign as Superintendent of Schools in this district. They hired, instead, Dr. Nathan Dewey, a fiscal and moral conservative. That means the eighth position is also in the hands of this majority.” He stopped and looked at us. This was slowly sinking in. We had been overrun by a powerful enemy.
“What I’m telling you has not officially been released. The teachers’ union filed a grievance regarding the new rules. It was denied based on the fact that it does not affect what is taught and that teachers are bound to uphold rules passed by the school board. They also are under threat of suspension if they fail to enforce the rules. There has been threat of a general teachers’ strike, but the district’s lawyers have been very hard-nosed about the legality of such a strike over this issue. The sum of what I am saying is that it is unlikely there will be any respite in this ruling until after the November election, two months from now. If you focus your response on anything, it should be on the election. I have no choice but to enforce the school board’s rules as they have written them, though, as you pointed out, Brian, occasionally I have room to interpret a little. I have nothing else I can say to you other than that meetings on school premises are required to have approval and would come under scrutiny.”
He waved us out of the room, not giving us a chance to ask more questions.
“We need a place to meet,” Ty said as we walked out the front doors. “You hit the nail on the head, Brian. We need a plan that is massive. I guarantee that that anyone who gets detention will buckle down and not risk a suspension.”
“Brian’s house this Saturday morning,” Brenda said firmly. I looked at her. “Sorry to volunteer you, but all of us will be there. You have the space and privacy and a reputation for having a lot of people over on Saturday to study.”
“What do you mean all of you?” a tall freshman asked. “By the way, I’m George. I’m just a freshman, but we didn’t sign up for four years of this crap.”
“George, I’m Brian. I’m glad to meet you. By ‘all of us,’ Brenda is referring to a group we established as freshmen as a kind of dating pool under a specific agreement. We signed a pact and we take it seriously. Those who are available often meet at my house to study on Saturday. It sounds like the group has decided to keep the tradition going this year.”
“Why your house?” Sandra asked.
“Well, I’ve got a really big… um…”
“Bedroom,” Brenda whispered. There was a slight pause and then we all started laughing. I had to admire what Principal Darnell had done. He’d chosen a boy and a girl from each class who ‘just happened’ to have a violation in the first full day the rules were in effect. None of us were elected officers of our class, so we had no official duties or responsibilities. But Brenda was a cheerleader. Ty was destined for the varsity basketball team. Sandra was the kind of go-getter who always had some campaign going to save the whales or the redwoods or the Biafra babies. Rumor had it that in sixth grade she read The Diary of Anne Frank and immediately started a drive to save the Jews. The thing is, people listened to her and she’d raised a lot of money for various causes over the years.
We finally agreed to meet at eleven on Saturday so no one would have to get up too early.
I was going to do fine in all my classes except one. I don’t know why, but I was scared to death of Ms. Hammer. She mostly taught Senior English Lit, but she also coached the varsity cheerleaders and taught debate. I didn’t realize that when I signed up for the class. I thought it would be an easy class that would lighten my load since most of the courses I took were junior level. Wrong! To make things worse, it was the last class of the day except Driver’s Ed. And I’d missed one Driver’s Ed lecture because of the stupid violation. I wasn’t thinking very clearly, but Coach Hancock said class that day was a video and I could watch it over the weekend. My weekend was filling up.
“Now, I try to keep the issues that we debate relevant. So, we’ll open the floor this afternoon to suggestions for topics to debate,” said Ms. Hammer.
“The environment,” one of the guys said. There were only three guys in this class. It felt almost like my dating group with fourteen girls.
“No,” Ms. Hammer said flatly. We all looked at her. “In order to have a proper debate, a position must be stated. ‘The environment’ is a vast subject with so many facets that there can be no debate on it as a whole. Are you in favor of the environment or opposed to it? It makes no sense. Someone refine the suggestion.”
“We should drain the swamps over at Juday Creek to cut down on the number of mosquitoes that breed there,” said one of the girls.
“Good. Now let’s look at it a little closer. Who specifically should drain the swamp? Are you suggesting a bunch of volunteers from this class?”
“Uh… no. The Federal Government should drain it. I guess.”
“Now, is this one issue or two? Or is draining the swamp an issue at all? It seems you are saying mosquitoes are the issue. If we can get agreement that there are too many mosquitoes bred at Juday Creek Swamp, then we can successfully debate the method of control. Let’s put this one on the board and we’ll get some people assigned to refine it. What else.”
“The new conduct rules.”
“This is a debate class, not a whining class. Who would you debate, on what issue?”
“They’re completely unfair.”
“That’s arguing, not debating. Stay relevant.” I expected Ms. Hammer to just put an end to the discussion and move on. She was the battle axe and when she said ‘no’ the subject was closed. But she hadn’t said no.
“Couldn’t we debate the school board?” I glanced back at Amanda Drysdale. She was really cute and sometimes I wished she had been closer to our group. I smiled at her, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“I can’t grade the school board. Unless you can establish a resolution to be debated according to standard school debate rules and a person or team to support the opposing side, we can’t debate the question.”
“Point of order?” I said. God! I hope I used the right words.
“What is your point?” Ms. Hammer asked.
“I’d like a clarification of how debates are judged. If I understand correctly, we are graded on who presents the best argument, not on whether we are right or wrong on the subject. Is that correct?” Things were falling into place in my mind faster than I could process them. I hoped I could catch up with my mouth.
“Judges of the debate are required to judge who has presented the best argument for his or her position. They are strictly forbidden to judge based on their own prejudice. A debate is very much like a trial. The jury may only base its findings on the facts presented.”
“Ms. Hammer, if a resolution can be formed and agreed upon, I volunteer to present the case of the school board in this debate, pro or con.” The whole room was silent. Ms. Hammer looked at me.
“You will fail the class—the entire semester—if you intentionally throw the debate to your opposition.”
“Ma’am, I will win this debate.” There was a little shuffling of feet and someone hissed.
“Ms. Hammer, I volunteer to argue the case of the students.” This time my head jerked around. Cassie? You want to debate me?
“Let me see. Miss Clinton, is it? I’m sure everyone in the class would like to argue against Mr. Frost in this matter. Why would you be the one that would be best chosen to represent the People versus the School Board?” Wow! The People versus the School Board? Ms. Hammer had already considered this!
“For most students, this issue is new. It is a sudden infringement upon rights that they have always had and they are offended by having those rights cut off. I was born into the slavery of parents, church, and school and have lived my life under restrictions as rigid as the ones the school board has implemented. To me, these are rules my parents enforce daily and wholly support. The school board’s rules are not an infringement on rights I possess, but a darkening of the last ray of hope I have for freedom as I get older.” I choked. I didn’t know if I could argue against Cassie.
“The class will determine whether this is an adequate reason for you to represent the people. Is there any discussion before we bring the issue to a vote?” Everyone was quiet. “All those in favor of Brian Frost representing the St. Joe Valley School Corporation Board, signify by raising your right hand.” Everyone voted. “Unanimously carried. Those in favor of Cassandra Clinton representing the People, signify by raising your right hand.” Everyone raised a hand except me. “Opposed, the same sign.” I still didn’t vote. “Mr. Frost, you did not vote.”
“Respectfully, Ms. Hammer, please record my vote as an abstention. I do not feel justified in voting for whom my opponent would be. I yield to the will of the class.”
“Carried with one abstention.” The rest of the class was devoted to refining the question. I had a bit of a plan in mind, but having Cassie oppose me was not what I planned on. Shit!
Comments
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
