Naked in School-Kevin and Denise
“C’mon, guy—what really happened?” “You saw it, how’d he trip” “You know how he did it—tell us!” rang out all around me.
I put my arms in the air. “Listen up!” I shouted. “What I said when I came in. I can only say what I saw myself. There’s a whole bunch of accident reports in the office, if you ask nice maybe they’ll let you read them. Is there a school paper? Maybe they can do a story, ok?”
I squeezed out of the room and found Denise waiting in the hall.
“My god! Let you out of my sight for a minute and all hell breaks loose! What happened to you? Why were you gone so long? I was getting really worried and then heard a siren...”
“Shhhh. It’s ok, tell you later, your ears only, ok?”
She nodded and we walked to Calculus. She told me what I missed in first period and would give me her notes and the assignment. I joked with her that I must be setting a school record for the most class excuse passes in the first week and was treated to that delightful giggle again. I could get hooked on it.
“So you can teach me about that meditation stuff, Kevin? Will that help me feel the energy you mentioned? That’s so exciting!”
“Yeah, I can try. I’m no master at this but I can show you how I learned it. Say, you know, maybe it can help you with your problem too—you know, that assault thing. I heard that calming the mind sometimes can go a long way in helping physical issues, but I do know that it helps me get calm and focused.”
The class was starting so we sat. After class we went to lunch and met up with our little group again. Most were pretty excited to tell us of their recruiting progress. We had a few kids who could do a website and others who could write well and could do blog articles on current Program topics. It looked like there was a fairly good interest in the guardian corps idea and some of the kids on the football team (gotta wrap my mind around the American concept of football) were interested; one of them was on the Program last spring.
Of course they were dying to know about the Abover incident. They were all totally convinced that I had set up the whole thing somehow and wanted to know how I had done it. Perceptive kids; they had seen me in action and figured I had some tricks they hadn’t seen yet. How right they were. I didn’t want to lie or even prevaricate so I changed the subject quickly.
“Oh, you know that the cops came to see me last night? About what happened in Fletcher’s office yesterday? Well, Abover tried to get me arrested for assault.”
Expressions of shock and chagrin appeared around the table. I went on to explain the distinction between assault and battery and gave them examples; then I went on to tell them that should anyone ask, that they could truthfully say that I didn’t assault anyone in the room—and they should leave out any comment about my takedown of Abover as that was an irrelevant detail.
I noticed that Jane was very quiet; she had her hands on her face like she was trying to keep from crying.
“Jane, are you ok? Anything wrong?” I asked.
She looked up and I could see tears in her eyes.
“A little scared is all. I was thinking how I felt in the office and about having to get naked and all of the awful, terrible stories about what they do to you and...” she trailed off, sobbing now.
Barbara leaned over and put her arm around her shoulder. “That’s why we’re here, honey, we’re going to try to stop all that crap from happening anymore. I’m really worried too, but if all those kids came through it last year, I guess we could too, don’t you think?”
“Uh huh,” she said uncertainly.
Suddenly a question popped into my head. “Hey guys, this is crazy. All this open-season sex that’s almost forced on you... Aren’t you girls afraid of getting pregnant? or a STD? How do you make the guys put on rubbers?”
Sarah grinned. “Maybe you really did grow up on Mars, Kevin. I thought everyone in the whole world knew about the magic shot that keeps away the babies and the bugs.”
“What do you mean? I lived a protected life, hardly ever saw girls socially and the only birth control I know is the pill and rubber. What’s the shot?”
“It was approved, what? five years ago, maybe. It made the Program possible, actually,” she said. “When it came out, people began thinking about how good open sexuality would be for everyone. The liberals thought it would cut down on crimes like rape and molestation and if kids could be indoctrinated into losing their sexual or bodily modesty, they’d grow up as well-adjusted adults. That’s what they taught us in our Civics class. It’s kind of what happened when the birth-control pill came out. There was a sexual revolution then but it got cut short by disease problems like AIDS and herpes. The Shot prevents pregnancy and all STDs and it’s effective within 24 hours of getting it and it lasts about 90 days. The only problem is that maybe 10% of women are allergic and can’t take it.”
I couldn’t help but think that this was both a good and a bad development. Good for society—cure disease, but bad for society’s morals—making sexuality public. I was brought up to believe that sex was a private matter between loving adults. Well, the world marches on.
Lunch period continued with smalltalk about classes, teachers, activities—you know, the stuff that interests high school kids—I think it was the first time since I arrived that I experienced some normality.
Fifth period came, it was the Health/Psych class that alternated days with gym, but Miss Williams popped in just before class started and asked me about the track team again. I told her I was considering it.
At the start of the sixth period, the paging system came to life. “Will Mr Kevin Coris please report to the office. Kevin Coris. Thank you.”
Oh MAN! Can’t they just leave me alone? What now? I looked at Denise who wore a very unhappy expression, shrugged at her, and excused myself to the teacher.
At the office, Mrs Maples told me that Dr Fletcher wanted me in his office, ok. Besides Fletcher, there were two men and a woman.
Fletcher said, “Ok, let’s use my conference room.”
It was next door; a small room with a table and eight chairs. When we were seated, one of the men began speaking.
“I’m Mr Merotta and this is Mrs Joury; we’re from the district Program office, and this is Mr James from the U.S. Attorney’s office.”
Oh, boy, what now?
“We’re here to investigate charges of assault on a Program official and we’re here to place Mr Coris under custody for the investigation.”
“Sir?” I broke in. “Is this an arrest?”
“No, it’s protective custody...”
“Protective how? I mean, who’s out to harm me? If you’re investigating, you’re asking questions and looking at records, right?”
“Well, we have the right to hold minors in custody for their protection during an investigation, correct, Mr James?”
He nodded.
“Ah. You do know that I’m emancipated; that means that I’m not a minor, correct?” They looked uncertain. “If you place me under custody, that constitutes an arrest as an adult. Do you have an arrest warrant that shows probable cause that I committed a criminal act?”
Mrs Joury observed to no one in particular, “Whoa. A junior lawyer.”
Mr James said mildly, “He’s actually correct. If he’s actually emancipated as he claims, the Program office has no authority to hold him. You would need a warrant, precisely as he said.”
“The school has a copy of my emancipation decree on file. I believe Dr Fletcher had the school district’s lawyer confirm it?” He nodded. “So unless you don’t believe Dr Fletcher, let’s stipulate that the decree is in order and that I’m legally not a minor, agreed?”
Mrs Joury said, only half in jest, “Son, exactly when did you graduate from law school?”
The others chuckled and that broke the ice; everyone around the table relaxed perceptibly—at least I could see it. Ok, now I’m establishing some control here. Let’s push it now.
“So let’s begin the investigation right now, ok? There’s a claim that I assaulted someone, right?”
“Correct,” Mr Merotta said, “Mr Boris Abover of the Program office filed that charge with us yesterday. When we arrived this morning, we found Mr Abover had been taken to the hospital. We interviewed him there and he told us that you threw a chair at him in his office, breaking his arm.”
Dr Fletcher cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Mr Merotta. I was there. I saw what happened. Mr Coris was in the corridor when Mr Abover ran out of his office and ran into the opposite wall, breaking his arm. There were over twenty witnesses too, and I have over a dozen accident reports that read almost identically. There’s no way Mr Coris could have been responsible for Mr Abover’s accident. He must have injured his head in addition to his arm when he fell,” he concluded with a slight grin.
“And Monday’s alleged assault?” Mrs Joury inquired.
“Yes. Mr Abover was in my office then and I was present with eight students, Mr Coris included. I can state categorically that no assault took place at that time either. The local police department investigated and cleared Mr Coris of any infraction. They probably did a report when they closed the complaint.”
The three visitors looked at each other, then Mr Merotta said to Fletcher, “Dr Fletcher, would you be so kind as to fetch the accident reports and Mr Coris’ emancipation decree and give us five minutes alone? Thank you.”
This was done. I waited with Fletcher in his office while they deliberated or whatever.
“Kevin, Kevin. At this rate I’m gonna have to start sleeping in my office so I can get some work done.”
“Sorry, sir. I can’t believe all of these bureaucratic layers.”
“Tell me about it.”
Then the three came trooping into the office.
“We’re sorry for disturbing your day. All this paperwork...” Merotta handed the files to Fletcher “...is in complete order. Apparently Mr Abover has been exaggerating the situation somewhat, why we have no idea, but we plan to investigate that issue further, but it shouldn’t involve you or Mr Coris at this point.”
“Mr Merotta, there’s another fact you should be aware of,” Fletcher broke in. “I received a report of Program infractions committed by Mr Coris against two teachers. When I investigated, I found that Mr Abover had falsified the information in his report to me. I don’t know why he would have done such an unprofessional thing. Let me give you a copy of those documents,” he said, picking up a folder from his desk and walking to the copier.
He made copies and gave them to Merotta with an envelope. “There’s no need for you to stay to read that; it’s all self-documented, but if you do have any questions, please call me,” he said, ushering them out of the main office door. He returned to his room, indicating that I should follow.
“Kevin, I spoke to the teachers. They corroborated your version of your interactions with them. It seemed that your, uh, how shall I say it, gently confrontational style? whatever—unnerved them but they agreed on reflection that they were projecting their own feelings on their impression of your behavior. I’ve seen you in action, son. What you can do can be dangerous, you know. You can get under someone’s skin and then they begin to do or say things they don’t intend. Please, please, cool it in school. You’ll turn my staff into raving maniacs if you keep it up. If you have an issue with a teacher that gets into rule interpretation, please don’t hit them with your artillery; they aren’t used to handling the kind of challenges you can pose. Just ask them to talk to me about the issue and give me some warning, ok? Can you do that?”
“Yes sir. I’ll make an effort to do that.”
“Thank you. I guess you can go now, but please be careful, ok?”
I nodded and left. The period was almost over, so I went to my locker, switched some books, and started for my seventh period room. The bell rang.
Denise came down the hall and seeing me, began to run. “Oh good!” she gasped, “you’re ok!”
“The way this week’s been, for the next ten minutes anyway, I am,” I said wryly. “I’m gonna have lots to tell you later, if you’re interested.”
“Oh! I am! Sorry that I can’t reciprocate; no interesting news on my side.”
“That’s ok; I don’t know if I could handle much more. I’m getting close to overload.”
“My poor studly hero. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve got the assignments and stuff.”
“Yeah, thanks. Hear anything more about our meeting later?”
“No, just names of some people coming. You wouldn’t know them, I think.”
“You’re right. Ok, let me switch into learning mode for class,” I joked.
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