Wisps of Wisdom

by Ross Richdale

  Mary jumped in. "Karla is the principal of Joseph Ward Junior High School. Heard they've topped a thousand students this year."

  "That's right, I remember you now, Peter." Karla said in almost a whisper. "I met you at the morning tea they put on for the short listed candidates when we had our interviews."

  The intermediate principal suddenly lost his pomposity, muttered a hasty welcome to her and without saying more than a couple of sentences took his coffee and moved way.

  "He was interviewed for your job?" Mary asked.

  "Yes, one of the finalist in the second to last interviews. Don't think he even made the final four," Karla replied. "I remember thinking how loud he was then."

  The whole group laughed as Peter Niles retreaded into the kitchen.

  Karla grinned. "Tap me on the shoulder if I become that high and mighty," she said.

  "You won't," Maria one of the other principals there said. "We were being mean, I know but he deserved that comeuppance. All he ever does at these meetings is talk about his great school and the wonderful achievements they have made. Your predecessor never came to these meetings preferring to mix with the high school principals, I believe so that left Peter the high lord to reign over us so-called juniors."

  They all laughed again.

  "Karla," said Mary. "All of us here, plus a couple of others meet once a month just for a coffee or wine, a meal and chat at one of those lovely little suburban restaurants, nothing formal. Would you like to join us?"

  "Please do," Alison added. "We aim at the second Thursday in each month but it doesn't always work out that way."

  Karla smiled. "I'd love to," she replied and meant it. She was impressed by how friendly and relaxed they all were.

  *

  One of the many meetings that Karla had with various groups of the teaching staff that she enjoyed most was a regular meeting with the four first year teachers. This was held the following day in school hours when the four had classroom release to observe more experienced teachers, attend courses or to plan work.

  Avery was back at work after a week away and showed no outward signs of her horrible experience. Perhaps she was helped by Hunter Meehan who seemed to become her constant companion. He was a pleasant young guy who would be a similar age to Avery. The other two first year women were a little older with Katherine Porteous being in her late twenties and Aharangi Waipouri in her mid thirties. All four were conscientious and perhaps that was the reason they were selected in the first place out of dozens of applicants.

  The four of them sat in what was called The Conference Room, along the corridor from the staffroom. It was a meeting room for all the smaller groups of teachers such as the senior staff, meetings with Vivian and parents as well as with PTA committee members. It was like a smaller staffroom with comfortable couches, a computer and also kitchen facilities so coffee and refreshments could be supplied without having to go into the staffroom.

  After a little over half an hour discussing work associated with their classes and comparing syndicates for they were each in a different one, Karla came to an item that she knew would be well received and had been approved by the Board of Trustees.

  "Thank you for all your efforts," she said. "As you know, I have visited all of you in your rooms and watched you teach." She smiled. "I hope it wasn't too stressful having someone watching every move you made."

  Being the eldest, Aharangi often spoke on behalf of the others. "No, we all agree that we appreciate your visits and also your suggestions, especially those little things like dealing with behaviour problems and what to say to irate parents at the door."

  "I agree," Hunter said. "The advice that they are referred onto our syndicate leaders rather than attempting to solve our own problems was sound."

  "Team work is important," Karla said. "Now the news that directly affects you all. The Board has approved my suggestion that all four of you will be invited to have your one year's appointment become permanent, rather than you all having to leave us and look elsewhere for a position next year."

  Avery stared at her. "You mean we will be offered permanent positions here?"

  "Yes. We are discontinuing the placement of four first year teachers in the school for just one year. It wasn't an easy decision to make but instead we will make every fourth permanent vacancy listed as being for a first year applicant. In that way, we hope to balance more experienced teachers and ones like yourselves on our permanent staff."

  "But there are four of us!" Aharangi said.

  "True. That's our future policy. You are all here, you're all doing an excellent job so if you wish of course, all four of you will be appointed as permanent teachers as from next term."

  "Oh my God!" Hunter gasped and grinned at Avery.

  Katherine smiled at Aharangi and all four teachers showed appreciation in their faces.

  "What about the senior teachers in each syndicate," Avery asked. "Aren't they also limited tenure positions for two years?"

  Karla smiled. "I believe that it is not fair to have limited tenure positions except for those where a teacher is on leave such as the two we have on maternity leave and one on travelling overseas this year. The senior teachers will be given the same offer to be appointed permanently. This will only happen once for from now on all senior positions will be also be advertised as permanent ones."

  "So where do we sign?" Hunter asked.

  "Vivian will have the contracts ready by the end of the week."

  *

  Each syndicate had a deputy or assistant principal leading it but there was also a senior teacher who in a smaller school would have been the deputy principal. Up until now they were all in limited tenure positions lasting two years. Vivian told Karla that the year before all four positions were re-advertised and only one of the four had won back her position. There had been a lot of ill feeling from the other three who were without a position at the end of the year. Also, without any apparent reason, two ordinary teacher positions had been filled the year before with limited tenure ones. Six more teachers were therefore in this category. Karla had visited them all in their classes and found that they were as good as, if not better than the permanent staff.

  She had heard of other schools where limited tenure positions replaced permanent ones but in her opinion it was ethically wrong and she told the Board that. The argument for this was that weak teachers could be moved on but in fact it was often personalities that made the difference. A principal such as Peter Niles at Westview Intermediate tended to like staff that he could control and it was interesting that the year before, nearly all of the out of zone student applications at Joseph Ward came from families in the Westview Intermediate zone. Further inquiries showed that almost half the staff over there were in limited tenure positions. She had also heard that if Niles didn't like teachers, at the end of the two years their contracts were not renewed.

  As with the four first years, the six teachers offered to have their positions made permanent were delighted. All were women with four bringing up young families and committed to living in the area of expensive housing and high mortgages. The security of having a permanent position made a tremendous difference in their busy lives.

  "How do you do it?" Vivian asked one morning after a meeting about administrative problems.

  "Do what? You're the one who succeeds in keeping our finances from running wild."

  "No not that. All Owen seemed to have was problems with the staff. That's why he brought in those limited tenure positions in the first place. But you've only been here a tiny while yet you have the respect from over ninety percent of the staff, not to mention the students. That's no mean feat."

  Karla shrugged. "It's just me, I guess. I try to be as fair as possible with everyone."

  "Even Michael White?"

  Karla laughed. "Okay, it is impossible to win them all. He's not too bad, you know."

  "No, of course not," Vivian replied and switched the conversation to a different topic.

&nb
sp; *

  CHAPTER 6

  It was early afternoon and Karla was in her office catching up on yet more administrative work when her intercom buzzed and flashed blue meaning that the call was coming in from the school reception area for students. In the school reception there were two main counters, one to service enquiries from parents and the general public and the second one for students. Vivian usually handled the visitors while one of the three receptionists dealt with student needs.

  "Hi Maureen," she said after she recognised the receptionist's voice.

  "There's a young lady who wishes to speak to you, Karla but she's not one of ours."

  "Meaning?"

  "She's from the senior high. Her name's Isabelle Kensington and was a student here a couple of years ago. Her younger sister, Stella is in 10PR here."

  Karla didn't know Stella Kensington but noted that she was in Jan Renner's home class in Petrel Syndicate. The class names were quite handy in a situation such as this.

  "Is it Stella she wants to see me about?"

  "It could be but she won't say. I remember her as a quiet girl, as is Stella. Those clouds are coming in aren't they?"

  The mention of clouds was a code meaning that the receptionist thought the visitor's needs could be urgent. The code was handy when the person visiting could hear what the receptionist was saying. It ranged from someone who could be threatening, an urgent matter or at the other end of the scale, a salesperson, reporter or a known person with a frivolous complaint. One particularly bad one was a retired neighbour who constantly arrived to complain about something he saw happening in the school grounds that his house overlooked.

  "Thank you Maureen. Send her straight in."

  Isabelle was a tall slim girl dressed in the navy blue Joseph Ward Senior High uniform. She appeared quite nervous but did look her in the eyes when invited to sit in one of the armchairs. Karla walked out from behind her desk and sat in another one across from the girl.

  "And how can I help you, Isabelle. Is it something to do with Stella?"

  "Indirectly but more myself," Isabelle said as she glanced at her feet and began to wring her hands. "I don't know where to start."

  "Anything you say is entirely confidential. Perhaps you could begin by telling me why you decided to approach me and not one of your own teachers."

  "The senior high is different from here."

  "How?"

  "Most of the teachers there are men. Mr MacRae is a good principal but I don't like Miss Oxley very much."

  Karla had met Miss Oxley, a prim woman in her forties, a couple of times. She was the DP and student counsellor over at the senior high.

  The school was actually only half the size of their school, having only been open for two years with Year 11 and 12s and would add Year 13s the following year. There were at present about five hundred students there that would build up to eight hundred. "So you want to speak to me because I am a woman?"

  Isabelle nodded. "Stella raves about you but it was that episode with Jasmine Trustcot that I want to talk about." She glanced at her feet for a second before she took out a handkerchief and blew her nose. "I've never told a soul before but don't want it to happen to Stella." She glanced up and Karla noticed that her eyes had watered.

  "There is no hurry, Isabelle. Just take your time. Would you like a coffee or perhaps a cold drink?"

  "I like coffee," Isabelle whispered.

  "Sugar or milk?"

  "Both. Two sugars please."

  Karla pressed her intercom. "Maureen, two mugs of white coffee, three satchels of sugar and a plate of muffins, please."

  A few moments later, Maureen walked in, placed the coffee and muffins on a coffee table near the armchairs, smiled at the senior high girl and retreated. Karla who had chatted to Isabelle about her interests and life at the senior high, mainly to relax her, handed her a mug.

  "Now what is it, Isabelle?"

  "It happened to me when I was here at the junior high, that's the age Stella is now."

  "What happened?" Karla asked in a soft voice.

  "I met this guy William through the internet and we exchanged photos of each other. Anyway, he said he was flying up to Auckland from Christchurch with his school's first XI cricket team for an inter-school cricket tournament. Said he was a Year 12 and I pretended I was the age I am now."

  "Which is?"

  Isabelle glanced up. "I'm sixteen but I was fourteen then."

  Karla nodded. "Go on, Isabelle."

  "William said he had an uncle here that he visited and would come up on the Sunday, a day before the rest of his team arrived..." Isabelle stopped and tears now rolled down her cheeks.

  Karla handed her a box of tissues. "But there was no boy; is that right?"

  Isabelle nodded and continued to talk in soft tones with almost no prompting. It was as if she wanted to finally talk about something that had bottled up inside her for over two years. To Karla, it sounded like almost a repeat of what had happened to Jasmine at the airport. However, there was nobody there to step in and after being persuaded to accompany the man to his van on the pretence that they were at the wrong terminal to meet William, she was taken on a harrowing trip to a remote road near mud flats and violently raped in the back of the van.

  "I feared for my life for he had a knife that he held to my throat," Isabelle continued. "I was terrified but didn't fight him off and let him do it. I guess it was cowardly but..." She wiped her eyes with another tissue

  "It was not cowardly," Karla said. "If you had done anything else you may not have even survived. What happened next?"

  "He did it twice and if anything the second tine was worse for I was screaming in pain and he slapped me around and forced me to touch him ..." She stopped and burst in shuddering tears.

  Karla reached across and squeezed her hand. "Let it all come out," she whispered.

  The girl sobbed and sobbed before she finally blew her nose and pushed back hair that had fallen over her face. "Afterwards he gloated about there being no William and that it was himself the whole time. He also threatened to find me and slit my throat if I breathed a word to anybody about what happened before he drove me back to the airport. "

  "Didn't your parents notice that something was wrong?"

  "At the time, Mum and Dad were on an overseas trip to Australia. Dad visits there quite often for business and decided to take Mum this time. Stella and I were staying with Nan, that's my grandmother. She's dear old lady but is old-fashioned and doesn't even have a mobile phone." Isabelle said. "That's the trouble. I was the one who asked this William if we could meet so felt as if I hadn't set it all up, it wouldn't have happened. "

  "Don't blame yourself. Knowing this type of person, he would have suggested it anyway."

  "You think so?" Isabelle asked.

  "Oh I'm sure he would have. Can I ask a few questions that could help us both?"

  Isabelle nodded.

  "Have you still got the website that you communicated with this William in?"

  "No, it was a Petal Life page. I don't even have one on Facebook now."

  "Can you remember its name and whether it was password protected."

  Isabelle remembered both. Karla grimaced and swung her desk monitor around. "Can I look for it?" she asked.

  "If you wish but I deleted the whole site and have never returned."

  Karla walked around her desk and a moment later entered the password Isabelle gave her. The page appeared with a yellow banner across the screen and the words Deleted at Owner's Request. However, at the bottom in tiny letters were a series of choices including Restore. She clicked on it and was asked three security questions. Isabelle remembered them and the page appeared.

  "Oh hell!" Isabelle gasped for taking up half the page was the photo of a smiling youth in cricket gear who looked about eighteen. Beneath was a photograph of a younger Isabelle in Joseph Ward Junior High uniform. The writing on the right showed as blue for inward and black for outward correspondence. It told o
f Isabelle's final arrangements to meet William at the airport. The latest message was a blue one that said. It will be fun for both of us. Love William.

  Isabelle went white and her whole body trembled. "He wanted that last photo of me in school uniform. I almost didn't send it for I thought that if he knew I went to a junior high he would know I wasn't sixteen."

  Karla remembered one of the remarks Ryan made that the paedophile in Jasmine's case was probably aroused by females in school uniform but said nothing. Instead she pressed the intercom and asked Maureen to bring Isabelle in a glass of water. This was really a distraction as she zoomed into the youth's image so only part of it appeared on the screen. She studied it, moved it across and grimaced. There at the top of the cricket bat just under a finger was the word enoon.

  "Got yah!" she muttered to herself and glanced up to see Isabelle starting at the image. "Isabelle, it's a fake image made up from probably half a dozen photos. If you look carefully you can see two parts that don't quite fit." She pointed to the right of the screen but never told Isabelle about the tiny word on the bat.

  "That's something," the girl whispered. "For months, deep down I still thought this William was a real person who would turn up and expose his uncle."

  Karla nodded. "As I said at the very beginning of your visit, everything you tell me is entirely confidential and I will tell nobody without your permission. You have told me of a very personal tragedy and I thank you for taking me into your confidence. I also remember that you said you didn't want this to happen to Stella, is that correct?"

  Isabelle nodded.

  "I also think the man who attacked you was the one who attempted to abduct Jasmine. The chances are that he has done the same to other young women around the whole country. He gets away with it because the victims are too ashamed to come forward."

  "I know," Isabelle whispered and looked into Karla's eyes. "What can I do, Mrs Spicer?"

  "To begin, I think you should tell your mother and discuss everything with her. You have shared everything with me, a stranger so why not confide in with your mother who, no doubt loves you."