The scene at Norwich Academy the following Monday morning was quite different from any other morning. The arriving students were all subdued, walking into the building and keeping mostly to themselves. Occasionally a few kids gathered to exchange some hasty comments but broke up just as quickly. Amelia, still moving fairly carefully, went to the office and handed in a note from the hospital that stated that she was not to engage in any strenuous activity or one where her surgical area could become exposed to injury.
After the children were settled in their first classroom and the final bell rang, their teacher announced that in five minutes, after attendance was taken, they would all leave for the auditorium where the head teacher would explain how the Program would be run. A sigh ran through the classroom.
Soon the school was gathered in the auditorium. Mr Hanford went to the podium.
“Greetings. I know you’re not looking forward to this new development at our school,” he began.
There was an affirming murmur from the students.
“We need to introduce this Naked in School Program here. Look at the Program this way. Norwich Academy is a performing arts school in addition to its other specialties, and we’d like you all to think of the Program as part of your learning about performance arts. I’m sure you’re well aware of how much nudity exists in plays and cinema so we’d like you to view your participation as a performance here at school.”
There was a loud grumbling of objection from the audience.
He went on, “Yes, I know you’re not convinced, but we need to put the best face on a situation which is really beyond the control of our school. Now you may have noticed some unfamiliar people in the room and here on the stage. Since this is the first time that the Program is being introduced into an independent school, the local Education Authority—that’s the group of officials which oversees the state schools—has provided us with a few security people who are familiar with the Program from other schools in the borough. And also up here on the stage is Mr Simon Whiston, who is a local representative for the National Program Committee.”
There was some subdued hissing.
“Please stop that and be polite,” Hanford warned. “Now you all received a copy of the National Program Committee’s pupil booklet, the Program booklet, last week. All the rules for the Program are in it. While you’re participating in the Program, complete nudity is required during school hours and also if you’re attending or participating at any school-sponsored activities during your week. As the rules say, any attempt to hide or cover up, like using your rucksack or for girls, doing something like using your hair to cover your chest, is a Program violation and violations can result in your being required to repeat for another week.
“The Program is supposed to teach you to overcome your modesty and become familiar with the bodies of both sexes and accept your own body and its sexuality. That’s why there’s a Program rule called ‘Reasonable Requests.’ Any pupil is permitted to touch or fondle the sexual organs of a Program participant, as long as the participant isn’t physically harmed—but pupils will not be allowed to put a foreign object into any body cavity of another pupil. In most cases, the Program participant can decide what he or she thinks is ‘reasonable,’ but untoward refusals are considered a Program violation, so you’re urged to allow most Requests or suffer unwanted consequences.
“The next topic I have to cover is called ‘Relief.’ Because of the heightened sexual pressure the naked pupils will have, especially if they’ve been fondled, participants will have an opportunity to masturbate to orgasm with or without assistance of another pupil during the beginning of any class. This must be done where the class can see the participant as it’s another teaching component of the Program. And the Program was also made part of the teaching curriculum and it requires teachers to use Program students for any necessary teaching demonstration, including things like being a model for sex studies in biology or as a figure model in art or photography.
“Let me remind you again that refusing Reasonable Requests and not participating in classroom demonstrations are Program violations, and some violations can extend one’s Program participation time by days or weeks.
“Finally, boy and girl participants must use the locker rooms, showers, and rest room facilities of the opposite sex during their Program week. Children who are in sports or performing arts will participate in those activities naked as well. We expect that you will be familiar with all of the Program rules as spelled out in your Program booklet, so be sure to read it to know what your responsibilities are. Not following a rule because you’re not familiar with it, isn’t an excuse. An inadvertent violation must be treated the same as an intentional violation.
“After we’re done here and before you return to classes, all girls in the school will need to see the nurse to get the contraceptive injection that the Program requires. This will be done in the gym, by classes, and every girl will receive the shot today. Now, we asked for volunteers for the first Program group but no one came forward, so pupils were selected randomly to start today. Before we call these pupils, I’ll make a last call. Does anyone want to volunteer and have your week done with now? No one? Okay. We’ve selected four pupils each from the tens and elevens and both the lower and upper sixth form; that’s sixteen pupils, and we’ll continue doing this until everyone has participated. When your name is called, please come up to the stage. First, from the tens...”
He read four names. There were a few gasps, but no one stood. Hanford looked at the audience.
“I read four names. Please come up here.”
A voice rang out, “Just say NO!”
A boy stood and called, “I’m not participating! I’m not going up there!”
Several others shouted, “Me too!” “I’m not doing it!”
Hanford looked at the teachers who were seated on the aisles. “Teachers, please identify these pupils as I read their names from all four class years...”
He read the entire list of names as the teachers pointed to the children called; four of the children named were not in the room. The teachers coaxed several of the children out of their seats and up to the stage, but most refused to budge.
Then Mr Whiston came to the podium and spoke quietly to Hanford. “After I saw that flyer from last week, I expected this. You’ll need to have your teachers bring them to the stage, using force if they have to.”
“I can’t do that,” Hanford whispered back. “We can’t use force; a law was cited to our governors that makes using force a criminal offense. The governors directed me not to use force.”
Whiston retorted, “The Program overrides any of those laws.”
“I’m not going to tell my teachers to do that and risk being arrested,” Hanford replied.
Whiston scowled. “All right then, I’ll tell the security people.” He turned to the microphone. “Security, please bring the pupils who’ve refused up to the stage.”
There was a series of minor tussles with a few of the boys and after several minutes, there were twelve children who had been brought to the stage but then seven of them ran backstage and disappeared, then three more snuck off while the security men ran backstage to find the seven. Chaos began; the three security men couldn’t keep up with the children trying to evade them and the teachers were trying to keep the children quiet. Meanwhile, many children in the audience were chanting, “Just say no!” over and over. In the commotion, about a third of the children managed to slip out of the auditorium while Hanford and the teachers were trying to restore order.
Whiston called the security men to stop and Hanford gradually restored order to the room.
Whiston looked at the small group of four pupils left cowering on stage; they were too frightened to resist. “Security, please bring three more pupils up here and keep holding them,” he said, “and children, you will obey or I assure you that the consequences will be rather harsh. If you don’t comply, we will have you arrested and jailed; you’ll find that really unpleasant, I’m sure.”
The security men began a flurry of activity and started trying to grab children who were near the aisles. Suddenly a man grabbed Amelia’s arm.
“Come with me, missy,” the man growled at her.
“NO! I have a medical excuse!” she screamed.
“No matter, there’s no excuses,” he said as he pulled her along.
Amelia activated the alert button Kevin had given her and her mini-phone beeped quietly, but the man was holding both of her hands, keeping her from using the voice function.
While Amelia was being virtually carried onto the stage, the other two security people were dragging two other children, a year eleven boy and a year ten girl onto the stage.
“Strip them,” Whiston told the men. “Do that girl first,” he said, pointing at the struggling, terrified year ten girl, “I’ll hold this girl.”
He took Amelia’s arms while the two men started to pull off the girl’s clothes while she screamed. She crossed her legs, attempting to prevent her panties from being pulled off, but the man grabbed its gusset and yanked, tearing it, and then ripped her panties the rest of the way off her. Now she was naked and was forced into a chair where one continued to hold her while the other came back to hold Amelia, letting Whiston return to the podium.
“The Program teaches you pupils about shedding your modesty, so we’ll now ask this girl to show us how she masturbates,” he announced. Turning to the girl, he ordered, “Stroke your fanny, girl. You’ll have to let the boys do that for Reasonable Requests, you know.”
“I can’t,” she wailed. “I’m cut there!”
“What do you mean, you can’t? Cut where?” Whiston asked
He told the man holding her to spread her legs and show her where to stroke herself. The man grabbed her hand and moved it toward her vulva and just as it got close, she jerked her hand out of his and his fingers jammed into her crotch. She screamed in pain.
“What the bloody hell?” the man pulled back, looking closely at her vulva. “What’s wrong with your...”
A boy in the audience, standing in the middle of his row at the back of the room, was shouting with the others to stop hurting the girl while trying to push his way out of his aisle, but he couldn’t make much progress in getting around the jumping, screaming kids blocking his way.
One of the teachers called, “Stop right now! She must have had her sex parts cut in that ritual genital operation they do! You just hurt her badly!”
“Okay, let her go and help me with this other girl instead.” Whiston called and the man who had stripped the girl joined the other holding Amelia, while two girls who were still on the stage went to the naked, hysterical girl and were trying to comfort her.
Amelia screamed at the two men as they began pulling her clothes off, “No! Stop, stop! No! I’ve just had surgery in my privates—someone please help!”
From the audience two of her friends called, “Stop, stop, you’ll hurt her!” and two boys who were on the stage, their initial shock gone from witnessing the first girl’s stripping, rushed over and tried to pull the men away but the men brushed them off.
Meanwhile, the boy in the audience who had been trying to leave his seating aisle had finally pushed his way out and was now leaping up the stage stairs while shouting, “That’s enough, get away from her, you bloody perverts!”
He rushed up and grabbed the shoulder of the man holding onto Amelia’s arms and pulled him back. The man let her go, turned, and angrily lashed out at the boy, intending to push him away as he had to the other two boys. Instead, the boy twisted around, bent over at his waist, and struck out with his foot, hitting the man square in his gut. The man yelled in shock and pain, flew back and went down, sliding across the floor and writhing in pain.
Meanwhile, Amelia, wearing only her bra and panties now and freed from the grasp of her first assailant, was left facing the man who had been trying to tear her panties off. She took a half step back away from him while trying to pull his hands off of her panties. He straightened up and tried to grab her shoulders but she pushed him back and with a swift motion, kneed him in the groin. He gasped and collapsed, clutching himself, and curled into a ball on the floor. While that was happening, the third security person had rushed at the boy. He reached out to grab the boy’s arm but was taken in a shoulder throw and found himself flying across the stage and crashed into a chair.
The stage was in an absolute turmoil now. Amelia hobbled off toward the left wing, supported by her two friends who had run up to help her while two other girls half-carried the sobbing, naked girl and her clothes with them. While that was happening, Whiston himself went after the boy, trying to grab him, only to suffer a crushing hip throw, landing him across several chairs. He slid to the floor, groaning and out of action.
Just then, three police officers appeared, coming on a run through the auditorium doors.
“What’s all this, now?” one shouted, climbing up the stage steps. “We got a call about an assault here.”
The boy, who was bending over his victims, apparently checking them for major injuries, turned to the officer.
“These four men assaulted a number of children here, two sexually. I tried to stop them. They may have injured the two girls. These berks aren’t seriously injured but probably will need medical care.”
“What the bloody hell?” another officer shouted. “It was a sexual assault?”
“Yes sir,” the boy said, indicating the four men who were gradually beginning to recover. “These blokes assaulted a number of children here. Here comes the head teacher, he’ll sort you.”
While the boy was talking, Hanford, who had been involved in trying to calm several hysterical children and one distraught teacher, had rushed over.
“Officer, I’m Clarence Hanford, the head teacher. We were holding a Naked in School assembly...”
“Augh! That bloody nonsense!” an officer grunted.
“...I tried to tell them—those people from the LEA—not to force the children, it’s against the law...”
The boy interrupted, “Section 58 of the Children Act of 2004, actually.”
Hanford and the officers all stopped and looked at him.
“Very good, Jeremy, and how do you know that, and judo too?” Hanford asked.
“Sir, I know you read that law and human rights blog, you’re always after my mum to get me to stop doing it. And it’s not judo; I know taekwondo.” Jeremy said.
The first officer interrupted, “Sod it! We have to see about injuries? Did you say there were injuries to children?”
Jeremy tried to see where the girls went and noticed the group in the wings comforting each other; the two stripped girls were now in clothes again but the fronts of both of their blouses appeared to be torn.
“Over there, it would seem,” he pointed.
“Jason, get some bracelets on those four blokes before they’ve recovered now and we’ll sort them later,” the first officer ordered. “The girls over there are really crying. Tom, maybe we should call to get Jennie over here?” he asked the other officer. “And a detective.”
“I’ll call. Jennie wasn’t far away when this call came. I have medics on the way too.” He keyed his mic and spoke into it. A dozen seconds later his radio squawked back; he replied and then said, “She’ll be here soon.”
Meanwhile, the first officer had turned to Hanford. “Okay sir, let’s get sorted here now. I’m Constable Jones. We’ll need more investigators so we’ll get a detective to follow up, but I need to get some statements right now. But first, I need to check on those girls. Tom, stay here with the head teacher and this boy; get their statement.”
He went to where the girls were trying to calm down the sobbing girl; she was in a chair and Amelia was squatting next to her, holding her and talking softly into her ear and she was nodding, tears streaming down her face. The other girls were rubbing her back.
Jones came up to the little group. “Excuse me, ladies. I’m Constable Jones. Was anyone injured here?”
Amelia looked up as the girl started crying anew. “Hana was jabbed in her privates,” she whispered. “It really hurt her badly, she can’t walk, but I don’t think she can deal with a man now...”
Suddenly a woman officer appeared at the auditorium door. Jones looked over and waved to her and she came running up to the stage.
“Ah, good timing, Jennie. This girl, Hana, was possibly assaulted and injured in her groin. Could you see if she needs medical attention?” To Amelia, he said, “Constable Bartlett can talk to your friend. Miss Hana?” he took her hand. “Can you talk to Officer Bartlett?”
Hana looked up.
Amelia hugged her. “It’s okay now, Hana, you’re safe. Talk to the lady officer.”
Tisa interrupted, “Amelia, weren’t you hurt too? They were really manhandling you there and they did get your skirt pulled off.”
Bartlett looked at her sharply. “Oh! Are you hurt too?”
“It’s okay, Hana needs help first,” Amelia said, holding her torn blouse together with one hand. “They tore off my top and tried to tear off my panties but a boy stopped them.”
Suddenly they were distracted by Kevin, who burst through the auditorium doors and came running up to the stage, calling Amelia’s name.
“Amelia? Are you okay?” he shouted. He ran over and embraced her.
Jones looked at the confusion and shook his head. “We really need to get this bloody mess sorted... Jason, please check on the call for a detective and ambulance, and ask for another unit. And tell those four berks to shut up; we’re not letting them loose until we know what happened. Tom,” he called to the third officer who was talking to Hanford and Jeremy; he had asked them to stay away from the girls, “I want to talk to those two you’re with. And you, sir,” to Kevin, “just who are you?”
“I’m Amelia’s guardian. I called the police about this assault in progress here. Amelia alerted me that she was in trouble. I have the audio from her phone that was recorded during the assault,” Kevin explained.
Then Jones moved aside and Kevin could see the three people standing near the podium, there was a police officer talking with two people; then the two people turned toward Kevin, watching Constable Jones walking toward them, and Kevin recognized Hanford and Jeremy.
“Jeremy? Jeremy Porter?” Kevin called out. “What are you doing here?”
Jeremy looked over at Kevin. “Kevin? This is my school! What are YOU doing here?”
Hanford glanced at Kevin and suddenly recognized him. “Mr Coris? What the hell are you doing here...?”
Jones rolled his eyes. “Shit,” he muttered, “What a sodding mess... I see we’re in for a lot of explaining.” Aloud, “All right, I’ll need to get some statements...” he broke off as he saw Amelia running toward Jeremy.
She ran up to him and hugged him.
“OH! It was you! You were the one who saved me from that creature! Thank-you-thank-you!” She pulled back and looked at Jeremy again. “OH! I’ve seen you! You’re in some of my classes!” she cried. “And your name’s Jeremy? And you know Kevin... Are you the Jeremy who Kevin and Denise are always talking about... and I never connected the names and didn’t remember your last name and never knew you went to school here and....”
“Shhhh,” Jeremy stopped her running on. “Yeah—you must be the Amelia who my folks said lived with Kevin? Wow. This is unbelievable.”
“Oh god, I can’t believe this. Denise said she wanted me to meet you... ohmygod, look at me!” She tried to cover her half-exposed chest, pulling the torn blouse closed tighter. She hugged him again. “You really did save me...” Tears began flowing.
“You’re okay now, Amelia. I couldn’t stand seeing what those perverts were doing to you girls. But hey, that was one mean kick you gave that berk, girl!”
“But you... you took three men and just... two of them are huge! And you just threw them like nothing...” Amelia went on.
Meanwhile Kevin had hurried up and was listening, happy to see that Amelia didn’t appear to be seriously frightened or hurt. “So you saved my honorary sister, Jeremy. If she got herself jabbed in her privates it would have caused her permanent damage. She just had surgery there. Amelia, are you okay? Maybe we should let Dr Singh check you.”
Jones turned to Amelia. “Miss, you sure you’re okay? Did one of them hurt you?”
Amelia looked around at him. “No, Jeremy stopped that guy before he stuck his fingers into my crotch like they did to Hana. But I was dragged around the room and then my legs got pulled on. That’s when Jeremy stopped him,” she said through her tears.
Kevin turned Amelia toward him and whispered in her ear, “Darling, are you really all right? You’ve gotten a bad shock and a reaction to it might hit you in a few minutes.”
“If you’re with me I’ll cope,” she whispered back, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. “I have Jeremy with me too,” she said as she reached out to Jeremy, who looked at her and put a protective arm around her shoulder. She leaned into his chest.
The other police and medics began arriving; they put Hana on a gurney and left with Bartlett. A man in a rumpled suit walked up to the group. “Hi, Jonesy. Fill me in on what you’ve got here. Folks, I’m Detective Sergeant Conners.”
Jones told him the few facts he had heard. “Mostly we were trying to get things settled down. This gent...” he pointed to Kevin “...says he has an audio recording of what happened.”
“Okay, then. Jonesy, do you think we need to get independent witness statements?” Conners asked.
“Not from this group, sir. They’ve all been talking about what happened amongst themselves so there’s no point now. Plenty of other potential witnesses for unbiased statements. I think getting an accurate chronology now will be better. You can corroborate with the other interviews later.”
“Sounds good; is there a quiet place? This area is really in a turmoil.”
Teachers had been rushing around dealing with upset children; a few were still in tears on the stage and Hanford had been passing out directions to his staff. Jones called over several officers and asked them to get a few statements from the children and teachers who had been close to the events on the stage while Hanford told a few senior teachers to take charge to restore order. Then he turned to Conners.
“Detective, we can talk in our green room, off of the stage over that way. It’s a performers’ waiting room and reception room to meet their admirers after an event; it has comfortable seats.”
“Okay, Mr Hanford, lead the way,” Conners said. “Jonesy, come with us too and,” he pointed to Amelia, Jeremy, and Kevin, “you three too.”
Amelia had gotten some safety pins from someone, closed up her blouse, and was now quietly talking to Jeremy, holding one of his hands with both of hers, and tears were still leaking down her cheek. Jeremy reached up with his free hand and wiped a tear away.
“It’s okay now, Amelia. You’re safe now, and Kevin’s here too.”
“Yeah, it’s just that reaction setting in now, Jeremy. Kevin was right, I’m feeling very vulnerable and exposed now. Oh, please hold me...”
Her knees started to buckle; Jeremy grabbed her and moved her to a nearby chair, easing her into it, as Kevin looked over with a concerned expression.
“I’m okay,” Amelia assured him. “Just got a bit unsteady but I’m really...”
Just then Kevin’s mobile rang and Amelia looked at him expectantly.
Kevin looked at the device. “Excuse me, it’s my fiancée,” he apologized. “I need to take this.”
Conners grinned. “For sure. Go ahead.”
“Hi, darling, Amelia’s okay. I’m here with her right now.”
“...”
“I heard what happened on my mobile as I was going there, but I haven’t spoken to her about it yet. We’re going to talk with the detective now. But she seems okay... yeah, she’s nodding yes.”
Amelia called, “I’m okay, Denise. Scared out of my mind, but I don’t think I got hurt very bad.”
“...”
“No, I don’t think we’ll need you now, but can you check with Dr Singh’s office to see if Amelia can see him? Just in case. She said her legs were pulled apart and it feels different now.”
“...”
“Yeah, any time this afternoon... Detective, will we be free by 1 pm? Okay, after 2 or tomorrow.”
“...”
“Sounds good. Text me then. Love you.” He turned to Amelia. “She sends her love. She had her phone on silent in class and didn’t hear the vibrate go off and feels bad about that.”
“You got the call and that’s what mattered,” Amelia told him as she rose from the chair and hugged him.
“You okay now, miss? Sure you don’t need to be checked over?” Connors asked and Amelia nodded. “Good, please come then.”
They walked over to the green room and found seats. Conners looked around at the group.
“Let’s begin with your names. Then tell me your role in the school, what you were doing here this morning, and where you were before the alleged assault took place.” He pointed to Hanford. “Mr Hanford.”
“I’m Clarence Hanford, head teacher. I was holding a school assembly. I was on the stage with three of my staff members and the local EA Program representative.”
Conners made some notes. “EA I know, Education Authority, right? But is ‘Program’ what I think it is?”
“The Naked in School Program. That’s what the assembly was about,” Hanford supplied.
“Right. Humm... I see... Okay, you next, young lady.”
“Sir, I’m Amelia Hadad and in the sixth-form here. I was sitting with my class in the audience seats.”
Conners glanced at Jeremy. “Young man?”
“Jeremy Porter, sir. Also a sixth-form and was in the audience seats with my classmates too.”
“And I’m Kevin Coris, Amelia’s guardian. I was in class over at the London Economics Institute when I got Amelia’s alert that she was in trouble.”
“Okay, Mr Coris, we’ll get to that part in a few minutes. Now, Mr Hanford, please describe what you were doing before the alleged assault occurred.”
Hanford began, “I had covered the pupil rules for the Program and then called out names for the week’s selected children to come up to the stage. No one came up. You see, last week an anonymous flyer had circulated in the school which encouraged our pupils to refuse to participate. The LEA learned about this and sent a rep and some security people here over my objections.”
“Were these the people who were involved in the alleged assault?” Conners asked, making notes.
“Yes, we didn’t invite them but Mr Whiston, the LEA rep, insisted he had the right to be here as an observer. I told him he could only observe, then, and not involve himself.”
Hanford went on, describing how Whiston took over the assembly and began to describe how he had used his security people to force the children to go onto the stage.
“When Whiston threatened the children with punishments if they didn’t obey but still nobody came up, that’s when he told me I must get the children to participate forcibly,” Hanford went on, “I told him that using force was illegal and said that our governors had specifically directed me that no force was to be used. He disregarded me and that’s when I suppose the assaults began as I expect that physically dragging a child somewhere against his or her will is an assault.”
Conners made some more notes, then looked up. “So from the state of Miss Hadad’s clothes, I assume that pupil’s clothes were removed forcibly? I realize this is a leading question but I’ve investigated cases in other schools where it was claimed that children were forced to disrobe but there was no physical evidence of the use of force.”
Hanford nodded. “I’ve heard that about other schools too. Teachers cajoled and persuaded the children, even helped them disrobe, but I think they used little overt force in the cases I’m aware of. In early Program days they sometimes had a teacher undress a pupil when he or she wouldn’t, but I don’t recall hearing that any pupils physically resisted by struggling. Teachers did get the Program participants to disrobe mostly under their own volition, albeit rather reluctantly, in almost all cases I heard about.”
“Yes,” Conners replied. “On occasion some parents have called the police to try to press charges but on investigation, I found that the pressure applied to the child didn’t rise to the level of a battery and the disrobing request was actually lawful under the terms of the Program law. What did you witness happened with the injured child?”
Hanford continued, “Mr Whiston had the so-called security men drag the children onto the stage. Some children had run off the stage, some may have even left the auditorium, but all were refusing to cooperate. When some of them ran off, the men just grabbed a few others, children who weren’t on the participation list. Then Mr Whiston pointed to a year ten girl, Hana Malek, who one of his men was holding, and ordered them to strip her.”
Amelia began crying again and Jeremy slid over to hold her hand. Kevin glanced over at the couple and smiled to himself.
Hanford described how Whiston then tried to use the girl for a masturbation demonstration.
Conners looked shocked. “I understand that doing that is voluntary; children can’t be forced to do that?”
“Well, under the Reasonable Request rule, I suppose it can be asked of a participant,” Hanford commented. “That’s what Whiston told her. She refused, saying that she couldn’t do it so Whiston asked his man to force her do it. Somehow he thrust his fingers into her privates then; I couldn’t see it.”
“I did,” Amelia said. “I was right in front of her. Hana pulled her hand away from his and he pushed his fingers into her. And she was cut—she had the FGM and her fanny looked—oh, it was awful, it was all wrong down there...” she shuddered. “I saw pictures, but seeing it on someone... how could they do that to a girl?”
Conners looked at Amelia with sympathy. “Yes, I know about the genital mutilations. We investigate reports of that happening right here in London, too, not only in Africa and Asia. What happened after Hana was injured?”
Hanford looked at Amelia. “You can tell what happened to you now, Amelia.”
Amelia looked down and clasped her hands together and Jeremy gave her a reassuring touch.
“Ah, when kids ran off the stage, one of the men came to where I was in the seats and grabbed my arm and dragged—practically carried me to the stage. I told him that I had an excuse, I had surgery last week, but he ignored me. After they finished with Hana they turned on me and just about tore my blouse off, see how I pinned it up?—and the man in front pushed me into the other one; I was kicking my legs so they grabbed them and pulled them wide apart. That really hurt. Then that big beefy man pulled off my skirt and grabbed at my panties gusset. He was going to rip them off like he did to Hana. That’s when Jeremy pulled the man holding me away and I was able to back up and kick the other man and get loose.”
Jeremy broke in, “Yeah, she nailed him really good.”
Amelia shot a quick glance at him. “Jeremy took care of the other three of them—he kicked one down and threw the other two halfway across the stage.”
She grabbed his arm with her hands. “Jeremy, you saved me just like Kevin saved Denise, you know.”
Jeremy looked at her, puzzled. “Like Kevin how?”
Kevin reminded him,.“Jeremy, remember when Denise and I visited in August and you told us about the Program in your first school?” Jeremy nodded. “Denise told you we met when she was put in the Program in her high school. She calls our meeting my ‘saving her.’”
“Ah,” Jeremy nodded. “You need to tell me that story.”
Conners cleared his throat. “Clearly you all know each other very well...” he began.
Jeremy interrupted, “Actually I didn’t meet Amelia until just now, back there on the stage. We heard about each other—Kevin’s a family friend—but I’ve never met Amelia. And I’m happy I did,” he added quietly.
Amelia smiled at him.
Conners looked at Jeremy. “Do you have anything to add?”
“Not really, sir, only that I witnessed a total abuse of authority. Forcible restraint of children, stripping, sexual assault. I told the constable here that I thought that those men violated a law, Section 58 of the Children Act of 2004. Probably assault and battery laws too.”
“Indeed, that’s what we’ll be booking them under,” Jones confirmed, grinning.
Conners looked at Jeremy intently. “Oh really? And just how do you happen to have this information so handy, son?”
Jeremy chuckled ruefully. “Head Teacher knows; I’m always in trouble for it. The head’s been after me for writing a human rights blog that annoys the authorities and it’s been covering the Naked in School abuses on it lately.”
Amelia gasped. “Ohmygod! That blog! Are you the ‘Realist’?”
Jeremy grinned at her. “Guilty as charged. The head wouldn’t have ever known except I did a dumb thing once and did a posting from a school computer.” He smiled at Hanford. “Sir, can you see now why I do that kind of thing? And why I couldn’t bear to see the girls treated like that?”
Hanford looked at Jeremy. “We’ll discuss this later, Jeremy.”
Conners looked distressed. “People, we need to keep on topic or we’ll never get this sorted. Jeremy, there were three men you subdued, correct?”
“Yes sir.”
Jones interrupted. “Two of them were bruisers, Sergeant. They were pretty slow to recover and we had no problem getting bracelets on them. I did want to ask what you did to them, Jeremy. They were pretty well knackered.”
“I’m a black belt in taekwondo. Actually, Kevin taught me for my first few years in Seoul,” Jeremy said softly.
“Bloody hell, he taught you?” Jones exclaimed. He looked at Kevin. “If a sixteen-year-old could do what he did, Mr Coris, I’d hate to think of what his teacher could do.”
“Yeah, Kevin is almost a grand master...” Jeremy said proudly while Kevin shook his head warningly.
Conners felt like he was losing control again. He looked at Kevin. “Okay now, Mr Coris. How are you involved... besides being Amelia’s guardian... ah... and Jeremy’s teacher, that is,” he asked, shaking his head. “I’m gonna hate trying to write all this... this rubbish up...” he muttered.
“Yes. Amelia was quite distressed last week when she heard of the Program coming here. She herself was subjected to genital cutting as a young teen in Indonesia. As a result of the damage, she’s been in fairly severe chronic pain since then, and recently her father was able to arrange medical treatments here in London to repair the damage. He works in Jakarta and couldn’t stay with her, so she’s living with us while she gets her treatments. She just had a genital surgical procedure, it was only last Wednesday.”
“Bloody damn,” Conners whispered, shaking his head.
“She brought a medical directive to the school which exempted her from the Program, but even with the exemption, she was afraid to come today because she knew that some children had been forced, thanks to her reading Jeremy’s blog articles. So I got her an emergency alert device to carry and when they grabbed her, she triggered it. I got the message and called the police 999 number. I tried to reach her by phone after she sent the alert but couldn’t; anyway, her mobile kept her voice channel open so I was able to record it during my taxi ride here.”
“Kevin, he was holding my arms and I couldn’t reach the mobile to hear if you were there,” Amelia said mournfully. “I tried...”
Kevin looked at her protectively. “Well, I could hear what was happening and tried to get the driver to go faster. He joked with me that I was acting like I was in some kind of crime show. He’ll never know how close to the truth he was. Anyway, I was dying to get here in time, and then I heard shouting, Jeremy I guess, then thumping and banging sounds with your voice saying things like, ‘Yes, good, oh my, wow,’ and that sounded far better to me than your screaming sounded earlier.”
Conners sighed resignedly, “We keep getting sidetracked. Mr Coris, I’ll get an evidence tech out here right away to copy that audio file. Thanks for being so alert and responding so decisively.”
Amelia and Jeremy had been whispering together; then Jeremy told her, “I’ll tell you later.”
Jeremy looked at Kevin. “Can I come over to talk to you and Amelia sometime soon?”
Kevin grinned. “Certainly. Anytime, Jeremy.”
Hanford was looking anxious. “Detective Conners, are we done here? I need to see if I still have a school out there and probably will need to deal with hordes of angry parents too,” he asked carefully.
“Yes, I think so; right, Jonesy?” Conners asked. Getting an affirmative nod from Jones, he said, “We might need followup statements and possibly an appearance at a trial as witnesses. Are you all willing to work with any prosecution, should that be necessary?” They all agreed. “Good; Mr Coris, can you wait? How long for the tech, Jonesy?”
“The tech is on the way. Be here in ten or so,” Jones replied.
“We can go to my office, then,” Hanford said as they all rose to leave.
As they were walking to Hanford’s office, a text from Denise arrived.
“Singh appt tomorrow @ 7 am.”
“Amelia, Denise has an appointment for you tomorrow morning at 7. How do you feel now?” Kevin asked.
“Achy down there, no sharp pains, but something feels different there,” she replied.
Conners looked over. “Please let me know if they find any injury, okay? I’ll give you my card.”
After the tech had retrieved the audio file from Kevin’s mobile, the police left, saying that they’d be in touch as the case needed. Hanford asked Amelia how she felt.
“Um, a little shaky...” she ventured.
“I think you should rest and not stay at school for the day,” Hanford replied.
Amelia looked at Kevin. “Kevin, can I go home and rest? Are you coming home now?” She looked at Hanford, then at Jeremy.
Kevin looked at Hanford. “Sweetie, I think I’d like to talk to Mr Hanford for a bit...”
Amelia interrupted, “Can Jeremy help me to get home? Is that okay, Mr Hanford? Please? Kevin?”
Hanford shrugged. “It’s not like the two of you will miss anything today, it’s a total loss. Sure. If Mr Coris agrees.”
Kevin smiled at Amelia. “That’s a good idea, honey. Here’s some taxi money. Jeremy, why don’t you stay for dinner; call your folks to tell them, okay? Tell them I said it’s really important.”
Jeremy nodded. “Thanks, Kevin. There’ll be no problem with my folks. I’ll tell you about that later when you get to your flat.”
After the two left the office, Hanford told Kevin, “One minute, I need to find out how the other girl is doing.” He picked up his phone and pressed some keys. “Iris, please find out where they took Hana Malek. Probably St. Whitson’s; it’s the closest... Okay... And find out how she is... Good. Thanks. Oh, please hold any calls.” He turned to Kevin. “I never asked for this kind of rot in my job. Anyway. Yes, I did want to talk to you also; that was an impressive performance you put on last week. The governors all want you to be on our side, too. I also have a sneaking suspicion that somehow you were behind last week’s flyer...”
He stared at Kevin intently, looking for a reaction—an involuntary flinch, pupils contracting, hands tightening—anything to give him away. Kevin sat gazing at Hanford, openly but impassively, his eyes locked on Hanford’s, giving away nothing.
Hanford looked away after a few seconds and shrugged. “Hate to play poker with you, son. It felt like you were probing my soul just then... never had anyone do that to me before,” he muttered. “Okay, then, let’s talk. You wanted to tell me something?”
“Mr Hanford, I get the impression you were on the right track in the way you were trying to start the Program but got derailed by those goons who took over. Now you’ve got a lot of damage to repair, I figure.”
Hanford sighed, “You certainly got that right. I don’t know how I can ever get the Program going here, the children are adamantly opposed and so are their parents. And the Program Committee’s response seems to be to use force.”
“I’ve seen the same things happen in the States. You saw what kids like Jeremy can do if force is used. I’ve had force tried on me and I know of one case in California where two men, employees of the Program, were killed as a result of going against a student who had martial arts training; that involved a close friend of mine who was protecting her cousin and two Program people died. We mustn’t ever resort to force. What I believe you need to do about the Program is to work along two separate paths.
“First, I suggest trying to figure out what form of the Program might be acceptable here at Norwich. My fiancée Denise and I might be able to help; we were involved in a project at our last high school that was run by Avery University. It was designed to meet the Program objectives and was able to accomplish them with no nudity needed. It’s what I said at the meeting: you can run the Program, but with clothes. There are ways to do that, actually, that work better than the Program.
“Second is mounting a publicity and legal challenge to the very existence of the Program here. It was through Jeremy, and incidently by reading his blog—actually I had no idea he was involved with that—that Denise and I became aware of the problems in the U.K. that seem to be Program-related. Like those honor killings, for example. I think I can help here too, but also I think that Jeremy might actually be your secret weapon. He’s a damned impressive young man, you know. He’s got an amazing memory and the ability to connect facts, and knows a surprising amount of things about human rights.”
“Yes, it was his blogging about human rights that brought him to the attention of some political figures,” Hanford agreed. “They had a posting traced to a school computer here and that’s when we learned that he was the blog’s author. But we’ve not publicized who he is; that’s a minor’s privacy issue.”
Kevin nodded. “That’s good...”
Just then Hanford’s phone buzzed. He raised a finger and picked up the receiver.
“Yes, Iris. ... Ah. Good. ... Okay, thanks. Any calls? Oh my god, okay. Please ask Karen, Audrey, and Elise to come see me in ten minutes. Thanks.”
He turned to Kevin. “The phone lines are melting now and the governors are rounding up for an emergency meeting later so I need to return to my duties now. I like your ideas and will mention them to the governors. And the girl—Hana. She was badly bruised in her vulva. There was a laceration too, some bleeding. She was in shock and is being sedated now; her mum is with her, but the docs say she’ll be okay physically. Psychologically they won’t say yet.”
Kevin stood up. “Thanks for telling me that. Again we may be able to help because Denise has worked once with a girl who was almost gang-raped. Denise was molested herself as a young teen and knows how that affects a young girl. Just let me know. She’s marvelous with working with teens. Amelia worships her and they only met a few months ago.”
He shook Hanford’s hand. “Good to talk with you, sir. Here’s my contact info.” He handed a card to Hanford.
“Likewise,” Hanford replied. “I’ll be in touch.”
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