by Rachel Lee
“Of course not.” He sounded almost sharp. “I’m as well-informed as you on the subject. That’s why it’s against our code of conduct.”
She tried to dial back her irritation. “I’m sorry. It just upset me, and then when they defied me that way, I got even more concerned. If they’re not going to listen to a teacher, how are we going to stop this? And what are we going to do about it?”
Les leaned forward, shoving his lunch to one side. He rested his forearms on his desk. “I don’t think suspensions would be prudent, not yet.”
“What?” She was horrified and still sickened by what she had seen. “We can’t just ignore this. And we can’t ignore the rules if we expect them to have any force.”
“Just hold on a minute and calm down a bit. I understand you’re upset and I understand why. You have every reason to be upset. But this isn’t a big-city school. I don’t favor zero tolerance for a very good reason. Kids will be kids....”
She started to open her mouth but he waved her to silence.
“Just hear me out, Cassie. I’m not excusing what they did. It was wrong. No question. No argument. But we have to ask ourselves what will be the best way to handle this with the least amount of damage.”
It took her a moment and a deep breath, but finally she relaxed. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“We aren’t going to tolerate bullying. You and I agree on that. But we have to ask ourselves how much damage we might do with our response. You must have noticed by now that not many of our students go on to college. Some of that is because they have the family business waiting for them the day they graduate. Some is because folks simply can’t afford it. We have a handful who get scholarships and an equally small handful who can afford it. Most of our students who get any further schooling do it at the local community college.”
She nodded. All of this had been explained at the time she was hired.
“So we have to ask ourselves,” Les said patiently, “whether we want to do something that might make a student choose to drop out, or that might damage a student’s ability to get a college scholarship. We’ve got a couple, I’m sure you know, who are poised to get athletic scholarships. Suspension would take that away.”
It was then that she made a mental connection and knew who one of the bullies was. “One of them was our star basketball forward.”
Les lowered his head. “Cripes. Now you’re talking about the state championship and a boy’s entire future. He’s looking good to get a basketball scholarship. Recruiters have been here several times.”
“He should have thought of that before he started bullying James Carney.”
“I agree. But he’s still seventeen. You remember being that age? How many times did you think things through, especially when you were with a group of people your age? That’s what bothers me about zero tolerance. Why wreck any kid’s life if we can handle it another way?”
Cassie bit her lip. She wasn’t exactly a fan of zero tolerance herself, understanding that young people made mistakes almost as naturally as they breathed. “But this is a little different,” she argued. “This was no mistake. Four of them ganged up on one student. I don’t know how far they might have gone if I hadn’t barged in. And we have to consider James Carney and what this might do to him.”
“I am considering it,” Les said. “I want it stopped, but I don’t want it to result in additional bullying or anybody’s life being wrecked.”
“So what will you do?”
“You identify those students. I’ll call their parents and make it clear that if this happens again they will be suspended. In the meantime I’ll give them detention.”
Cassie felt sickened, yet she couldn’t rightly argue with what he proposed. He was right. They had to be careful not to inflame the situation, and take care that they didn’t cause students to drop out or lose scholarships, unless this continued.
“You’re not happy,” Les remarked. He poked at his lunch listlessly then ignored it again. “I understand. I’m not happy, either. We’ve always had some minor bullying—what school doesn’t? But I don’t think we’ve ever had an incident as bad as what you’re describing, at least not in my memory. If you’ve got a better solution, let me know. Just understand, there are no perfect solutions. If I bring the hammer down too hard, that could result in James being bullied worse. We’ve got to try to reason our way through this to cause the least damage to all five of those students.”
She said nothing, feeling her stomach sinking but unable to argue against his logic. “I hate bullying,” she said finally. “It damages the victim well past the incident, sometimes for life. What’s more, I hate the thuggish mentality of those who do it.”
“Then maybe we need to do something about the mentality. It’s not enough to just put a ban on it in the code. Maybe we need to use this as an instructional opportunity.”
She perked a little at that statement. “How so?”
“We need to educate our students, maybe their families. We need them to truly understand how bad this is.”
She nodded. “What those boys were doing could get them arrested.”
It seemed to her that Les blanched a bit. “Oh, let’s not go that far. Criminal records for assault? Battery, if it happened?”
“I don’t want to do that, either,” she agreed. “I’m just saying, if we can’t get through with an emotional appeal to a sense of fair play and what’s right, we could also list the criminal consequences. Bring it home. Maybe have a law enforcement officer tell them a few things.”
Les smiled. “I can see you already have ideas. So what I’d like is for you to get together with another teacher and come up with a plan for an assembly or two.”
Cassie’s mind immediately skipped ahead and was already summoning ideas for the assembly and maybe a long-term program. “Okay. Who do you suggest I work with?”
“Linc Blair. He’s the most popular teacher with the students and seems to carry a lot of moral authority with them.” Les gave a little laugh. “More than I do, certainly. Yes, I’ll explain the situation to Linc at the end of the day and see if he’s willing. In the meantime, try to get the bullies’ names for me. I want to spend some time on the phone with parents.”
He paused. “God, I hope this isn’t resulting from things that are happening to these boys at home.”
It could well be, Cassie thought as she left his office a few minutes later. Bullies were sometimes created.
Why did she feel as if she might be about to overturn a rock and discover some ugly things?
If there was any upside to this at all, she supposed it was that she would at last find out why Lincoln Blair avoided her as if she had the plague.
By close of school that day, she had the names of the four bullies. She had asked for the aid of other teachers, without explaining why she needed to know. List in hand, she headed for Les’s office and found he was already talking to Linc. He waved her in to join them and she took the second chair that faced Les’s desk.
“Cassie here can give you more detail,” Les said, “given that she’s the one who broke it up.”
She looked at Linc and noted the way those startling blue eyes of his met hers then swiftly looked away.
“I have the students’ names,” she said quickly, passing her list to Les.
He took it almost as if it might bite him, then muttered a word no teacher was allowed to use within the school. “Ben Hastings,” he said. “Damn, why did it have to be Ben?”
“He never struck me as the bullying type,” Linc remarked.
Cassie started to bristle. “I didn’t make up the names.”
Linc glanced her way again. “I didn’t say you did. I’m just surprised. As high a profile as he has because of his basketball skills, I would have thought that if he were a bully we’d have known long ago. That’s all I meant.”
Cassie caught herself, realizing that she was taking everything too personally. She’d been upset about James all afternoon, and i
f she were honest, she suspected some of that had to do with some bullying she had endured when she’d been a plump adolescent. Boys and even some girls had picked on her weight mercilessly.
“As far as I know,” Les said, “the worst cases of bullying we’ve had in the district have been in the elementary and middle schools. A few fights, name-calling, some blows. But it seems to get better by this age. Or at least less extreme.”
“Things have changed,” Linc remarked. “We got a lot of new people in town when the semiconductor plant opened, and even after the layoffs there are still a lot of students who didn’t grow up around here. That creates a different kind of tension.”
Les lifted a brow. “In what way?”
“Outsiders versus insiders. It used to be most of these incidents could be worked out between families who had a stake in keeping things friendly. It’s not like that anymore, and new kids make obvious targets. James Carney is a new kid, for one thing, despite the fact he was born here. The family just moved back after years away. He’s also a serious student, he’s small and he isn’t involved in sports. Very much an outsider. He makes easy pickings for a pack.”
“So what are you saying?”
Linc leaned forward. “I’m saying we have to nip this in the bud. We can’t allow serious bullying to go unchallenged or we’ll have more of it. I get why you’re reluctant to suspend these students. Hell, it’ll probably just make the whole thing worse for James Carney, and maybe even for Ms. Greaves here.”
“Cassie,” she said automatically, as she waited to hear where he was taking this.
“Cassie,” he repeated with barely a glance in her direction. “Look, Les, we have a different dynamic now from anything we’re used to around here. We’ve got new kids, new ones who don’t have to go home at night and help in the family ranch or business. Kids who are, relatively speaking, on easy street. They get fancy electronics, most have newer cars, and if they take jobs it’s for pin money. What makes you think that isn’t going to breed resentment?”
Les’s frown had deepened and Cassie felt her stomach turn over. Under no circumstances did she want to see another incident like she had today. The memory still sickened her, the sight of James cowering and those boys spitting on him.
“I’ve been watching the changes take hold,” Linc continued. “A lot of the new kids are going to go to college. They’re not going to stay here. The other students know it. Outsiders just passing through. We’ve been having more and more instances of division, separate groups forming, and some name-calling. Why the hell else do you think I have a zero-tolerance policy on bullying for my football players? I never used to need one, but I’ve made it clear over the last couple of years that one instance of bullying is enough to get a player thrown off the team.”
“You’re not proposing we suspend all these students!”
“Not yet,” Linc said quietly, sitting back. “But your idea of starting an antibullying program is a good one. We’ve got to educate before this gets out of hand. And it will get out of hand. The bullying won’t just be going in one direction, either. The factions have been forming. We can’t let the divisions get any deeper or uglier.”
As she listened, Cassie got an inkling of why Linc was so well-liked and respected by students and faculty alike. He seemed to truly have his finger on the pulse of this school.
“How do you know all this?” she asked.
“I pay attention. My students talk to me.” He gave her the briefest of smiles. “I’ve been around a while, too. It’s easier for me to see what’s happening than it would be for you, or even for Les. He doesn’t have as much student interaction as I do.”
“So we start a program?” she asked.
“Definitely. As for what happened today, I’m concerned. It’s one thing when you see this among third graders or even seventh graders. But these students are on the cusp of adulthood. In the spring or in another year they’re going to walk out of here men. They should be past this by now. Sure, they might have little shoving matches, or call a name or two when they get annoyed, but this kind of ganging-up should be well behind them. We’re going to have to tread carefully so we don’t make things worse.”
Cassie spoke. “So you agree with the way Les wants to handle it?”
“We have to do something. From the minute you walked in on it, from the instant they ignored your authority as a teacher, we haven’t had a choice. There has to be a statement made, punishment doled out. We can’t let anyone think they can get away with any of that. But I’d really like it if we could find a way that wouldn’t cause more grief for James Carney.”
“He didn’t do anything,” Cassie said. “He wouldn’t even talk to me. In fact, he said I was making it worse. If they want to be mad at someone, it should be me.”
Les spoke. “We can make the detentions about the way they treated Ms. Greaves and nothing else.”
Linc looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time, and she felt an electric shock all the way to her toes. “How did they treat you exactly?”
“Well, it wasn’t just that they wouldn’t come with me to the principal’s office. When they passed me to get out the door, they made sure to bump into me, and it wasn’t exactly just brushing by.”
Linc’s dark brows lifted. “That’s definitely not good.”
Les slapped his hand on the desk. “We can’t let that pass under any circumstances. We’ll have anarchy.”
“But this isn’t about me,” Cassie protested.
“It is now,” Linc answered. “You just got bullied, too.” He sighed. “Okay, this is how I see it. Leaving out the gruesome details for now, put the bullies on detention for ignoring Ms. Greaves—Cassie. Make it about ignoring a teacher’s direction. We’ll get to the rest of it as we go, but for now let’s take the spotlight off James Carney. Maybe they’ll duck and leave him alone since he won’t be the source of their headache for the time being.”
Cassie turned the incident around in her mind, remembering the way those students had bumped her shoulder on their way out. It had been a little more than disrespectful. Almost like a hinted threat. Linc was right, she had been bullied, too. A little flicker of anger started burning in the pit of her stomach.
“I don’t want to make Cassie an inadvertent target,” Les said.
Cassie shifted in her chair. “Look, Les, we can’t let this go. What do you think those students will do to me, anyway? They can get as mad as they want. Surely you aren’t suggesting they’d physically hurt me.”
Les looked shocked. “No, of course not. You’re a teacher.”
Cassie didn’t think that was much protection, but on the other hand she figured these students wouldn’t want the veritable hell that would come their way if they treated her the way they had treated James.
Linc spoke. “Just make it clear to them that it’s unacceptable to ignore a teacher, and then add something about how touching her, so much as touching, however briefly, is a crime called battery. I don’t think any of them is stupid enough to ignore that.”
“I agree,” said Cassie. “Let’s get this program going, give the students detention for ignoring me, call their parents about their behavior and see how much help you’ll get. Keeping the spotlight off James is the best thing to do. I don’t want them turning on him any more than they already have. He’s the one in most need of protection.”
“Okay then.” Linc rose from his chair, an almost iconic figure in old jeans, cowboy boots and a faded chambray shirt. “I’ve got to get to the locker room again before the team wonders if I fell off the edge of the planet. We have an away game tonight.” Then he turned his attention to Cassie. “Are you okay with this? Really?”
“Being the center of the storm? Of course. Those bullies don’t frighten me, they make me mad.”
One corner of his mouth ticked up in a smile. “I’ll give you a call tomorrow morning and we’ll set up some meeting time to get this ball rolling.”
He strode out, a
nd Cassie’s gaze followed him helplessly. Wow, she thought, he was going to call her. Maybe she didn’t stink as bad as she sometimes thought. Les called her attention back.
“If you’re okay with this, then that’s how we’ll handle the matter for right now. But not for too long. I don’t want those students to think they’re going to get away with bullying anybody.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Finally feeling satisfied with the direction they were taking, she said goodbye to Les, picked up her book bag and headed out for the weekend.
The day was still glorious, although twilight wasn’t far away. Winter nights came a lot earlier up here than she was used to.
But instead of thinking about the glorious weather or the relaxing weekend ahead, she was thinking about Linc Blair again. Dang, he almost acted like it hurt to even look at her. Had she turned ugly since yesterday?
Shaking her head, she tried to think of other things. Despite her reaction in the principal’s office, she wasn’t entirely easy about transferring the bullies’ anger toward her.
She had taught in a school where a teacher had been attacked by a student, and she didn’t labor under any delusions that her status protected her. On the other hand, bullies were usually cowards at heart.
It would be okay, she assured herself.
But it would be even nicer to know why Linc seemed so determined to keep such an obvious distance. He didn’t even make the normal friendly overtures to her, like the other teachers.
No, it was as if he, or she, were surrounded by some kind of repulsion field. Keep away seemed to bristle all over him.
It probably hurt more than it should have because of her bad experiences in the past. Guys seemed attracted to her just long enough to find out if she was willing to jump in the sack with them, and then either way they made a fast exit. It was, one of her friends admitted, weird. But the same friend had reminded her that dating was a series of “noes” followed by one “yes,” eventually.
But never before had she met a guy who seemed to see poison every time his gaze scraped over her and then headed elsewhere.