The Castaway Hotel - 4 - 21. Chapter 21 - We All Take A Stand

When we got to the board meeting room, several people were already seated, including the scoutmaster and his son, whose nose was all taped up. Seeing them in attendance, I was glad the boys had talked me into letting them come along too. Those two did turn and glare at us as we entered, but I told the boys to ignore them and not look in their direction, as I didn’t want to instigate another situation. They agreed and we sat and talked amongst ourselves while we waited.

It was a pretty boring meeting, as the board members went through all the normal school business, and then the school board president looked directly at me and spoke. “The next item on the agenda is a request for a student to return to classes. Mr. Currie, I believe this is one of your sons and we do have some concerns we would like addressed before we make our decision. Let me begin by telling you how sorry we are about your son’s accident and the medical problems he’s suffered because of it.”

“Thank you, Madam President. I shall pass your message along to my son, and thank you,” I told her.

“You’re welcome,” she replied. “Now, here are some of our concerns. First, we are worried about the fact that the high school has two floors and your son will have to negotiate the stairs. We are also concerned about his passing through the crowded corridors, seeing there’s a chance he might get knocked down and injured again.”

“Well, I do believe I have a solution for this. Pat has been working with tutors since he was first injured and one of those tutors has found someone who’s willing to spend the school day with my son, help him get from class to class, through lunch and to and from the restroom. Pat has learned to do many things for himself, so he just needs someone to help him get from place to place or tell him where things are. As far as the crowded hallways, I figured he could avoid them by leaving class a few minutes early or waiting and arriving to the next class a few minutes late, whichever would be acceptable to that teacher.”

“Well, it sounds as if you’ve thought this through pretty thoroughly and have all the bases covered. What about his normal classroom tasks? How will he take notes, do homework and take tests?”

“I felt we would have to discuss some of these issues with each teacher involved,” I explained. “We were hoping most of his teachers would be willing to let him record his homework assignments on tape and give him oral exams. If not, his tutor would read the questions to Pat and then write down Pat’s responses. During classes, we are going to have Pat record his notes on a battery-operated recorder. He would use a different tape for each class, to keep his notes from becoming confusing.”

“Again, you seemed to have already anticipated these problems,” she observed. “Now I believe our only remaining concern is the issue of school liability. How liable would we be if your son should injure himself again, if we allowed him to return knowing about his condition?”

“I have already talked to my lawyer about this,” I informed her. “He is willing to draw up a document releasing you from all liability as a result of his blindness, and you would assume only the same liability you would with any student, mainly through negligence, neglect or lack of care.”

The board members took a moment to discuss things amongst themselves, before the board president turned to me again. “I think we have made our decision. Before Patrick can be reinstated, we will need you to bring us a release form from his doctor, stating there is no medical reason that would prevent him from returning to school with the proper assistance and you’ll need to bring us the document your lawyer draws up absolving us from any additional liability, so the school’s lawyer can study it. If he finds it acceptable, then your son will be allowed to return to school. You can work out the other details with the high school principal and his teachers.”

“Thank you, Madam President, from both my son and me,” I told her. “He will be thrilled to hear he will be able to finish the year out with his brothers and friends.”

The board continued on with other business and we just continued to sit and listen to what was going on. Near the end of the meeting, one of the members made a brief and cryptic mention about the fight and then they quickly adjourned for a private session. When they returned, they announced they had approved the suspension of several students for fighting on school property. This was all that was officially said about the altercation, but I could see that the scoutmaster didn’t think it was enough.

When the board president opened the floor for comments, the scoutmaster leapt to his feet, to be the first to speak. He immediately began ranting about how his poor son had been treated and that he suffered a broken nose in the scuffle, and now they would be incurring hundreds of dollars in medical expenses, which he thought the instigators or their parents should have to pay for. He also suggested that those who started the fight should receive more than a week’s suspension, possibly even be expelled. Once he’d finished, he turned and glared at us again, before smiling in our direction. It seemed as if he thought he had just won the war.

I waited for him to sit down, before I attempted to stand and speak, but someone beat me to it. Before I had a chance to get up, someone else rose and addressed the board.

“I agree with the previous speaker,” the guy said, “but I think he has been slightly misinformed. The person that instigated this ruckus was his son.” The scoutmaster, who had been grinning and pleased by this guy’s support, now pivoted in his seat and scowled at the man who now had the floor. “From what my son has told me, it was his son who started harassing my son, setting him up for this abuse, and it was also his son who threw the first punch. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t make it count and a group of brave young men helped to protect my son from that bully and his friends.” By now, we all concluded this man must be Shannon’s father. “My son is right here, to confirm what I’ve said, if you want to hear it firsthand.”

The board members were talking amongst themselves again and then one of them addressed Shannon’s father. “Would you mind telling us what they were harassing your son about?”

“I will be happy to come forward and tell you privately what it was about, but I don’t think everyone here has to hear their bigoted comments.” He was motioned forward, but before he got there the scoutmaster’s son shouted out, “His son’s a fag!” Shannon’s father stopped in his tracks and turned toward the boy, giving him an icy stare.

The scoutmaster had quickly elbowed his son in the ribs, just after he shouted out, realizing his outburst wouldn’t benefit their case. His son groaned from the painful shot to his side and slumped against his father. Shannon’s father just turned forward and began to speak again.

“Well, I think that should be proof enough this bully was sexually harassing my son and I think we should honor his father’s wishes and punish the instigator more severely than anyone else. It was his son who offered my son a ride home, but it was merely a ruse to lure my son to the parking lot, where his friends were waiting to do who knows what to him. If that other group of boys hadn’t come along, I might be visiting my son in the intensive care unit of the hospital right now. The scoutmaster’s son’s actions were intentional, premeditated and discriminatory. I don’t think you can let his actions slip unnoticed and I hope you will take a firm stand against what he attempted to do.” After he finished his statement, he returned to his seat and put his arm around his son’s shoulder. Now, it was my turn to speak.

“From what I have learned from my sons, their stories support everything you were just told,” I began. “In attempting to keep those boys from taunting and assaulting the last speaker’s son, my sons were assaulted themselves. They were only defending the boy and themselves, even though they also know they broke rules in the process and are willing to take the suspension for fighting, even if their actions were warranted and justified. I don’t think the district can let this slide, as this incident clearly falls within the guidelines of the sexual harassment policy, which this board has written and posted. I believe that under those guidelines, expulsion is called for, at least for the person organizing the attack.” I sat back down and the board members started talking amongst themselves. At that moment the scoutmaster stood back up.

“All my son was doing was informing the boy that he would be barred from participating in Scouting activities, as a gay lifestyle is completely contrary to Scouting principles,” he stated, trying to stop the tide of momentum against them.

“That’s a lie!” someone shouted. Those words came from the back of the room and were definitely from a female speaker. We all turned in our seats to see who had said it and soon discovered it was one of the less popular cheerleaders, and her face was now beet-red. “They were calling him names and making fun of him, then they started pushing him around, asking him if he wanted to do things with them, and that’s when the Curries showed up. They put an end to what those other guys were trying to do.”

“She’s right,” the girl next to her said, standing up to support her. “In fact, I heard them planning it in our last period class, so we followed them out to try to stop it. When we saw how many boys were ganging up on him, we were afraid to say anything by ourselves.” She turned and looked at Shannon and his father. “I’m sorry. I probably should have gone to tell someone else instead, but I really thought at first we could talk them into leaving him alone.” The girls sat back down and the board members started talking quietly as a group again.

Eventually the board president stood up and made an announcement. “We will adjourn for another closed session, so we might decide what should be done with those who participated in this incident. We shall notify everyone involved in writing what punishments they will receive from this incident.”

“Excuse me, Madam President,” I interrupted her, “but under the circumstances, I would also like to strongly urge the board to discuss what ties the school district should have with the Boy Scouts in the future. Seeing their policies run contrary to your own guidelines about tolerating persons of various religious, ethnic or sexual orientation, I personally believe the organization should no longer be allowed to use school facilities, promote their activities on school property, be allowed to wear their uniforms to school or in any way participate as a group at any school function. I also suggest we discontinue letting the United Way seek contributions from school employees or do fund raising on school grounds, as long as they continue to support the Boy Scouts financially. I think all ties to this organization and their bigoted policies should be eliminated.”

I sat down and several people started to applaud, which I suspect began with Shannon’s father, and soon my boys joined in and about three-quarters of those in attendance were standing and clapping in support of my comments. The scoutmaster now looked as if he were ready to explode, as his face was bright red from the collar up, but he somehow managed to keep himself under control.

“We won’t act on any of those suggestions this evening, but we will take them under advisement and study them in the light of current school policies,” the board president announced, “but if it should require a vote, it will be done at one of our future meetings.”

Shortly thereafter the meeting was adjourned. Before we got up to leave, however, Shannon and his father came forward to introduce themselves to my boys and me. “Hi, I’m Jake and I just wanted to thank you and your boys for what they did for my son. You sure have raised a fine group of young men. Shannon has briefly told me about your family.”

“Why, thank you, and I’m glad my boys did the right thing,” I agreed, “even if it did get them suspended for a week. I remember Shannon from soccer season. He was quite good.”

“Your boys weren’t slouches either,” Jake chimed back. “Look, there just aren’t words to express our gratitude for what you and your boys did for us today. I don’t know how we’ll ever pay you back.”

“Well, I can think of one way,” I suggested. “Why don’t you and your family join us for dinner Saturday evening, so we can get to know each other better? That would be payment enough for us.”

“We’d like that, but we will still owe you,” Jake agreed. “There’s only the two of us now, since I’m divorced from Shannon’s mother and she lives in another state.”

“That’s fine. Why don’t you stop by about 6 or so, then we can get acquainted before we eat?” I added.

“Sounds great, we’ll see you then,” Jake agreed, looking excited about the invitation.

“Do you know where we live?” I asked and Shannon nodded in response.

“Yeah, I know which house is yours,” he said. “I’ll give my dad the directions. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate your standing up for me like that.”

My boys all told him that ‘it was nothing,’ ‘they enjoyed it’ or ‘anytime’ before we parted. While we had been chatting, I had noticed the scoutmaster and his son walking along the far wall and heading for the exit as quickly as they could. On the way out I saw the two girls who had spoken in my sons’ defense, so I stopped to congratulate them for the courage it took to do such a thing. They blushed when I did so.

“We did it because it was the right thing to do and because Shannon and your sons have always been nice to us, even though we really aren’t in the popular group at school. They always stopped people from picking on us too. If you didn’t notice, I’ve always been a bit heavy and I get made fun of because of that. We just wanted to make sure they didn’t take the blame for what those other jerks did.”

The boys all took this opportunity to thank them personally and I moved away to let them chat with each other. To occupy myself, I went up to speak with the members of the board who were still milling around the table at the front of the room. I reiterated my stance about what I’d said earlier and gave more detail about my reasons, since this conversation was being carried out in private. I told the various members present that I was going to do everything in my power to lobby against the Scouts now, at least until they moved into the twenty-first century and relinquished their antiquated and discriminatory views. A couple of the board members even told me they agreed with my stance, so I felt there might be enough support to keep the ball rolling. I bid them all good night and then took my sons home. On the way, we had quite an interesting conversation.

“Man, Dad,” Kevin began, “you and Shannon’s dad were awesome. Did you see how red the scoutmaster got when you two were talking? Especially after you recommended throwing the Scouts out of the schools. That was pretty funny.”

“No way,” Cole added, “the best part was when the scoutmaster elbowed his son after his stupid comment. I think he cracked his rib, to go along with the busted nose Frankie gave him.” All the boys were laughing and getting into it now.

“What do you think the board is going to do next?” Dustin asked. “Do you think he’ll get expelled or will he just be suspended like us?”

“There’s no way I can speak with absolute certainty about that, but if they follow school policies, he should definitely get expelled. Seeing this is the test case in support of those policies, I don’t see how they can do otherwise. If they don’t take a strong stand now, they’ll never be able to enforce it in the future and those policies will just end up as a bunch of words on a piece of paper.”

“I hope they do expel him,” Brandon added, “especially after the things he said about Danny and me. I would have broken his nose too, if Frankie hadn’t beaten me to it.” He chuckled, and then Danny and he high-fived each other, before high-fiving Frankie too.

By the time we arrived back home, Dion told me that I had received several phone calls and the messages were by the phone. He said most of them just wanted to tell me that they supported my suggestions at tonight’s board meeting, so he and the younger boys wanted to know what went on there. I let the boys fill them in, while I checked to see if I should call any of those people back, but I determined the calls could wait for another time.

I did make some phone calls however, but they were all to Pat’s tutors. I felt I needed to ask them if they’d mind having several additions to their workload and explain the reasons why this was necessary. Most told me they had already learned about the fight from other sources and suspected the boys involved might get suspended. No one had any problems with the additional students, since it meant more money for them for making the same trip and adding only a slightly longer period of time to accommodate them.

When I finally finished my phone calls, I told the boys to hit the showers, as they would still be studying tomorrow and I didn’t want the tutors to have to put clothespins on their noses to survive. The boys all gave me the raspberries over that comment, to let me know that they didn’t think they ever stunk, so I happily reminded them about a few times they had complained about each other. They laughed, gave in, and soon were getting ready for bed.

The high schoolers came back to say good night and thank me once more for standing up for them and not adding my own punishment. That’s when I advised them there are times when we have to stand up for our principles and defend those who find themselves outnumbered or are weaker than ourselves. I felt what they did was a combination of all of the above and I would always support them when they did what they thought was right. I went on to let them know I was proud of them too, regardless of the fact that the school did have to punish them because of their actions. I then explained the school district was obligated to enforce their no-fighting policy and I felt they’d feel just as obligated to expel the ringleader for the same reason. They all agreed that if that happened, it would all be worth it.

The next day, I called the high school and asked the secretary if she would please ask my boys’ teachers to send down their assignments for the week and if she could have someone collect their books from their lockers too. I told her I’d pick everything up after school this evening. She agreed to do this for me, and then she added she was proud of my boys and sorry they got suspended for what they had done. I told her I understood how school policies worked and that I’ve had to enforce a few I wished I didn’t have to myself. I told her the boys wouldn’t suffer irreparably from it and none of us were making too big a deal over it. We said our good-byes and then I went about the business of my school.

At lunch, I called and spoke with the head of the local United Way and urged him to reconsider his organization’s continued support of the Boy Scouts. We talked for several minutes and he indicated he doubted any changes would be made. That’s when I informed him I was sorry to hear that and I’d have to publicly voice my opposition to his organization as a whole, urging everyone I knew or had contact with to stop donating another penny to them until they dropped the Scouts from their list or the Scouts dropped their policies against gays. He said he hoped it wouldn’t come to that, as we had always worked well together and I had always been very involved in raising contributions for them. However, he agreed we would each have to do what we thought best. There were no harsh words and it didn’t change our relationship, we just had different perspectives and agendas, as far as this issue was concerned.

After school I stopped by to pick up my sons’ things and nearly broke my back carrying everything from the office to the car. Each boy had a bag filled with his belongings, mainly textbooks and assignments, and each bag seemed to weigh a ton. I took them two at a time, but there were ten bags in all, so I ended up having to make five trips to the van. Unfortunately all the other students had left by the time I arrived, so there was no one there to recruit to help me. I swear by the time I loaded the last pair of bags into my vehicle, my arms were two inches longer than they had been when I started. When I got home, I made each of the boys go out and retrieve their own bag, since each was clearly labeled. As they were bringing everything into the house, I relaxed, since I felt my part of the job was done.

That evening I received several more phone calls, but this time I got a chance to chat with each individual who called. I also phoned the people back from the previous evening, thanking for them their support on this issue. By the time I had finished my calls, I had a grassroots network started, which was intent on keeping the school district from supporting the Boy Scouts (and Cub Scouts) in any way. I also had another group that was dedicated to influencing the United Way to also change its policies concerning supporting those groups.

The volunteers were very busy over the next few days, and by the end of the first week nearly 60% of those contributing to the United Way through payroll deduction, including nearly everyone who worked in my building, had gone to the district office and demanded their deductions be ended. I don’t know for sure how much money that meant to the United Way, but I was certain they would feel the pinch and get the message this was serious.

In order not to harm other organizations we supported, we were going to compensate them for any lost revenues by donating to them directly, thus bypassing the United Way. We would also inform them this was only temporary remedy and these contributions might also be cut off, depending on the United Way’s final stance on this issue. We hoped this might also get them to pressure the United Way to act against the Scouts, in order to protect their own share of the pot. Only time would tell if we would be effective at influencing the Scouts’ ban on gays, but we did feel we had made a pretty good start in that direction.