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I heaved a sigh. I could continue to work until well into the evening hours, as busy as we were for the day, but if this was that important, I knew that I needed to be willing to give a little. “I can be there in a half an hour,” I replied.
“Alright! We’ll see you then,” she said.
We hung up and I finished typing up my email, then sent it and logged out of my computer. I grabbed my cellphone and hurried out of the office. “Mary, I have to leave. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Is everything alright?” she asked.
I paused at the door and shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m sure it will be. Pack up and leave, because it’s not fair for you to be stuck behind.” I smiled and quickly left the office.
When I got to my car, I had dialed up Tasha’s number. She answered almost immediately. “Hello?”
“Hey, Tasha…it’s Matt.” I slid into my car and started it up, then backed out. I fumbled with the phone and putting my seatbelt on, but finally got it done, before I continued. “Just got a call from Cody’s school. They asked me to come in and speak with them. Any ideas why?”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. I waited, getting a little impatient at her stalling. I opened my mouth to tell her to just spit it out and let me know what happened, when she responded. “Well, there was a little altercation at the school when I picked up Cody. Some kid was bullying him.”
That was all I needed to hear. As a scrawny kid growing up, I also got bullied. It was never fun. I despised being the one that always got picked on. “A bully?” I asked. There was a knot in the pit of my stomach. “What happened?”
She quickly told me her side of it, about how she was standing up for Cody and I couldn’t really knock her for that. I appreciated that she cared enough to stand up for him. So, I just listened and reflected on her information. “Cody and I talked, and he said it’s been going on for a while now. What bothered me the most was that with all of the students and teachers out on the schoolgrounds, no one noticed this kid Bobby pushing him around.”
“He should have said something to me about this,” I mumbled, but again I knew what he was going through. I never said anything because I thought it would only make it worse, and I never had someone like Tasha that would stand up for me. I pulled into the parking lot of the school. “Alright. I’m here at the school about to go in,” I told her, not feeling any more at ease than I did when the dean called me.
“Okay, I’m sorry you had to leave work and go up there, Matt,” she said.
I parked my car. “You don’t have to apologize. Thank you, Tasha. I’ll be home when I’m done here. Bye.”
“Bye,” she softly replied. I hung up the call and got out of my car. I slipped my phone into my pocket, prepared to know what I was battling.
***
Dean Westcott peeked her head out of the office and motioned for me that she was ready. I truly felt like I was going to the lion’s den, but this was ridiculous. If this was about what happened in the schoolyard, then it was their fault, not anyone else’s.
I took a seat in the chair that she pointed to. There was a man seated in the chair next to the principal. She soon introduced him. “This is Henry Jackson. He’s the head of the board at this school.”
I nodded and ignored his outstretched hand. I looked at her and she cleared her throat, before she began.
“It’s been brought to my attention that there was an incident on the lawn today when the students were getting picked up. Bobby Gentry’s mother and father called me and said they didn’t appreciate that their little boy was being bullied by one of the guardians.”
“Hmmm…” I sighed, shaking my head. “There was an incident?” I asked. I tried to keep my emotions in check, but I was fuming inside. “You think Bobby was bullied? Well, that’s quite interesting, considering that no one at this school knows who the real bullies are. My babysitter simply was trying to point out that bullies shouldn’t be tolerated…and that bully is Bobby Gentry who has been riding down on my nephew and extorting money from him for God knows how long. My babysitter should be commended for addressing a situation that was happening right underneath your noses and none of you even noticed,” I added and looked between the two of them. They gave me a look of disapproval.
“Well, we don’t tolerate adults bullying kids, and you should mention this to your babysitter, before she’s no longer allowed at this school,” Dean Westcott said defensively, her voice rising an octave.
“Wow! So, you don’t tolerate adults sticking up for children, but you tolerate other kids bullying, so they can weasel lunch money out of some unsuspecting kid?”
Dean Westcott shrugged. “We aren’t sure what really happened.”
I heaved a sigh and rolled my eyes. “I just told you what happened.”
“We have to look out for all of our children, and adult’s harassing other people’s children is simply not allowed,” Dean Westcott said.
“I thought you said you weren’t sure what happened.”
“Sir—” Dean Wescott began, but I cut her off by holding up my hand.
“Well, it’s like this…it seems to me that you’re more concerned about my babysitter’s actions than the fact that she was protecting my nephew. That’s ridiculous and I will pull Cody out of this school without batting an eye,” I fumed. “Plus, I have no problem removing all my financial backing to this school and you know that there’s a lot.”
“You don’t need to do that. We’re just saying that maybe you should tell your babysitter to back off,” the head of the board spoke up.
I leaned back in my chair and fired shots at them both. “I think that instead of that, you need to start implementing plans to reduce the bullying, because I’m sure Cody isn’t the only one.” I stood up from my chair. As far as I was concerned, the meeting was over. I glanced at Dean Westcott for a minute. “That should be your challenge. Get rid of the bullying and this school will be better. Besides, I doubt my friends that have their kids in this school would appreciate knowing this is going on. And I have no issues with telling them and maybe they will want to pull their child from this school, as well.”
