Rancher's Deadly Risk

Before the scene could get any uglier, she clapped her hands as loudly as she could and shouted, “Stop this now!”

Four startled faces turned her way. It took a little longer for James to lower his arms from his head.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” she demanded. “You shouldn’t treat anyone like this, not anyone. Ever. But this is a violation of school policy. You know what the penalty is. James, are you all right?”

The youth jumped to his feet and hurried for the door. “I’m fine,” he muttered as he rushed past her. “You’re making it worse.”

“Go to the nurse,” she called after him before turning to face the four others. As the full impact of what she had just seen began to hit, she could feel herself roiling with anger. For long seconds she simply stared at the four young men who had been taunting James. Keep it cool, she reminded herself. It was important to stay calm and reasonable.

“Bullying,” she said quietly, “is despicable. It shows you to be small men, not big ones. It isn’t tolerated by school policy and you know it. You’re coming to the principal with me.”

“Make us,” snarled one of them, then they all brushed past her, bumping her shoulder as they went, leaving her both livid and helpless. She couldn’t run out into the hall after them, nor could she physically stop them.

But there was something she could do. She picked up her bagged lunch, tossed it in the trash—she didn’t want to eat it after it had fallen to the bathroom floor—and headed for the principal’s office herself. None of this was going to be tolerated.

My God, James had looked as if he expected to be beaten … or as if he had been. She just wished she had recognized the other four boys by name. Apparently they were in Teasdale’s math classes. Gloria Teasdale was semire-tired, teaching only three classes a day. An elderly woman who wore too much perfume, she was sometimes the object of derogatory remarks from her students, but Cassie ignored the comments. Kids would talk about teachers outside the classroom, and she could see no point in stepping down on it. She was no martinet and she was equally certain some of her students had derogatory things to say about her. The nature of the beast, she thought with grim amusement.

But bullying was a whole different matter, damaging to the bullied student emotionally, if not physically, and most definitely against the school’s conduct policies.

She reached the office and asked Marian, the front desk receptionist and secretary, to call the nurse’s office and find out if James was okay. Then she joined the principal in his small office. He always ate lunch at his desk, eschewing both the teachers’ lounge and the cafeteria.

Sometimes she thought of him as barricaded away from all the possible disturbances in a high school. At other times she thought he just felt like a fish out of water, not sure of his welcome even in the faculty lounge. Or maybe he just thought people would be more comfortable if he wasn’t around. She didn’t have a good read on him yet.

His round face smiled as he greeted her. He was about fifty pounds overweight, and his lunch consisted of a few slices of lean chicken over a bed of fresh vegetables. He had confided that he was dieting without much success. She looked at that lunch and felt a pang of sympathy.

“Still starving?” she asked him.

“Unfortunately. The doc says I’ve lost two pounds, though, so I guess it’s working. Some days I’m not sure it’s worth it.”

“I can imagine.”

He leaned back, ignoring the dry salad and chicken in front of him, a meal that cried out for a little salad dressing or mayonnaise to help it go down. “Is something wrong? You look … disturbed.” He waved her to the seat in front of his desk.

She sat, trying to gather her thoughts, trying to maintain a calm she was far from feeling. “I am upset,” she admitted. “I saw an instance of bullying in the boys’ room. I stopped it, but when I tried to bring the bullies to you, they told me I couldn’t make them and they brushed past me. Les, you know bullying is a violation of the conduct code.”

“How bad was it?”

“They were spitting on him and calling him names. He was cowering on the floor in a corner as if he expected to be hit or kicked.”

He frowned. “That’s bad. That’s very bad. All of it. Who were they after?”

“James Carney.”

He shook his head. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Some people just seem to draw that kind of attention.”

“All it takes is being a little different.”

“And James is certainly that. Smarter than most, small. Did you know he skipped a grade last year? I don’t think that’s helped him any but his parents and a committee of teachers felt we couldn’t hold him back. Maybe we should have.”

“We shouldn’t have to,” she argued, getting a little hot. “That boy should be free to move ahead if he’s capable without four other boys attacking him for it.”

Les nodded slowly. “Can you identify the bullies?”

“By face, not by name. They must be in Mrs. Teasdale’s math classes.”

“If they’re still in math at all.” He sighed. “How would you prefer to handle it?”

“The rules call for suspension,” she reminded him. When he didn’t answer immediately, she started to feel both annoyed and nervous. Surely he wasn’t going to propose they simply ignore this?

Marian stuck her head in the door. “James Carney never went to the nurse.” Then she popped out again.

“So he must be all right,” Les remarked.

“That doesn’t make this all go away!”

Les lifted his brows and held up a hand. “I didn’t say that. I’m just relieved the Carney boy is okay.”

“Physically okay,” Cassie said almost sarcastically. “I’m sure I don’t need to educate you on the other effects of bullying.”

“Of course not.” He sounded almost sharp. “I’m as well-informed as you on the subject. That’s why it’s against our code of conduct.”

She tried to dial back her irritation. “I’m sorry. It just upset me, and then when they defied me that way, I got even more concerned. If they’re not going to listen to a teacher, how are we going to stop this? And what are we going to do about it?”

Les leaned forward, shoving his lunch to one side. He rested his forearms on his desk. “I don’t think suspensions would be prudent, not yet.”

“What?” She was horrified and still sickened by what she had seen. “We can’t just ignore this. And we can’t ignore the rules if we expect them to have any force.”

“Just hold on a minute and calm down a bit. I understand you’re upset and I understand why. You have every reason to be upset. But this isn’t a big-city school. I don’t favor zero tolerance for a very good reason. Kids will be kids… .”

She started to open her mouth but he waved her to silence.

“Just hear me out, Cassie. I’m not excusing what they did. It was wrong. No question. No argument. But we have to ask ourselves what will be the best way to handle this with the least amount of damage.”

It took her a moment and a deep breath, but finally she relaxed. “Okay, I’m listening.”

“We aren’t going to tolerate bullying. You and I agree on that. But we have to ask ourselves how much damage we might do with our response. You must have noticed by now that not many of our students go on to college. Some of that is because they have the family business waiting for them the day they graduate. Some is because folks simply can’t afford it. We have a handful who get scholarships and an equally small handful who can afford it. Most of our students who get any further schooling do it at the local community college.”

She nodded. All of this had been explained at the time she was hired.

“So we have to ask ourselves,” Les said patiently, “whether we want to do something that might make a student choose to drop out, or that might damage a student’s ability to get a college scholarship. We’ve got a couple, I’m sure you know, who are poised to get athletic scholarships. Suspension would take that away.”

It was then that she made a mental connection and knew who one of the bullies was. “One of them was our star basketball forward.”

Les lowered his head. “Cripes. Now you’re talking about the state championship and a boy’s entire future. He’s looking good to get a basketball scholarship. Recruiters have been here several times.”

“He should have thought of that before he started bullying James Carney.”

“I agree. But he’s still seventeen. You remember being that age? How many times did you think things through, especially when you were with a group of people your age? That’s what bothers me about zero tolerance. Why wreck any kid’s life if we can handle it another way?”