I shouldn’t be condoning violence, especially when she’snot the one who started it, but it would’ve been hard to restrain myself as well in her situation.
“What’s your perspective, Mr. Martin?” I ask.
“You’re not even going to ask my kid for his side of the story?” the mother says, leaning toward me with a finger outstretched.
“I don’t need to. I’m not the mediator.” I turn back to the principal, waiting to hear what he makes of the entire thing.
“She punched me for no reason,” Joey says, looking like he’s going to pass out at any moment.
“Mrs. Andrews has said something about pressing charges against your niece.”
I fold my arms across my chest, curious about what he’s going to say next. When he says nothing, I say, “They want to press charges. That’s interesting. She shouldn’t have hit him, but Lila has also put up with a lot since she’s been at this school. How about the number of times she comes home crying because of Joey’s taunting? That seems like a key point to be leaving out.”
“You have no proof,” the mother says.
“You need proof that your child is taunting kids who’ve recently lost their father? I would think you’d want to make sure he was more compassionate about people going through grief. But that’s just me.”
Breathe, Avery. Breathe. I don’t need to get all riled up about this.
The mother’s mouth drops open, as if she can’t believe I would say something like that.
“Do you know who I am?” she asks, standing.
“I don’t, actually. But that shouldn’t matter, because this is between your boy and my niece.”
“I’m going to have to suspend Lila,” Mr. Martin says.
“That’s understandable. What are you doing to shut downthe taunting and bullying on his end?” I ask, tipping my head toward Joey.
Mr. Martin looks down, shifting his papers on his desk. I know what he’s going to say.
“We don’t have any proof of what’s happened, and nothing has been documented.”
I point my thumb toward the door. “I can head home and get my notebook. I’ve got every instance documented, and we can go through the security camera footage together. I’m sure we’ll be able to see exactly what happened before she punched him.”
“That’s not what those are for, Ms. Parker.”
I frown. “I’m not sure I follow. You have security cameras in the hallways, but you can’t use them to verify things like bullying? That’s the main reason for having them, isn’t it?”
“We’re not allowed to show them to anyone not in a leadership position in the district.”
“So, we’d need a court order to check those out?” I say, opening my phone. There’s a slight thrill here as my brain goes back to my roots as a lawyer.
Mr. Martin waves his hands. “No, no, we don’t need to take things that far. Lila will be suspended for two days, and so will Joey.”
The boy’s mother lets out a gasp. “Why? He didn’t attack her.”
“Words are just as powerful as a fist,” I say, turning toward her.
Mr. Martin stands up and comes around his desktop to stand between me and Mrs. Matthews. Luckily, she freezes before hitting him.
“Time would be best for both parties. Please take your wards out of the building now. They’ll be able to return Friday morning.”
I gesture to Lila, and we walk out of the office first. Thesecretary shrinks back, as if she’s been eavesdropping on the conversation.
We make it out of the building, and Lila walks like her feet are plastered with cement as she drags herself along the pavement.
“What’s wrong, Lila?”
