The Kid On The Bike - 2. Chapter 2

The problem was that Elena didn’t know where to start, even carefully. Like the security guard, she knew about the high school’s politics. Only four years earlier, there’d been a huge investigation, several lawsuits, and a scandal, all focused on discrimination. So when she took the question to Owen, she wasn’t surprised that he put it off until the next day’s lunch.

“It’s not like we can check every on Asian student – or even every Asian boy,” he began as Elena, Don, Jae, Rob, and Ike started to unwrap their lunches. “Or any Asian boy who’s been at the high school in the last five years.”

“And what about the surrounding schools?” Elena asked.

“Public and private?” Rob questioned. “Prep would add about a third more.”

“And the colleges and junior colleges,” Ike appended.

“The guard seemed to think ‘high school,’” Elena reminded them.

“But where does ‘Asian’ begin and end?” Jae asked. “With one parent? A grandparent? A second cousin by marriage?”

“One thing in our favor is there aren’t many Asian students at Waldron,” Ike pointed out. “Maybe a couple of dozen – just above the number of Black. My kids sometimes feel like they’re in Idaho.”

“Or how they imagine Idaho,” Rob joked

“What they see on TV,” Ike admitted.

“There are only four hundred kids in the high school,” Elena advised. “Ninth through twelfth grades. And it’s eighty percent white.”

“Our staff’s better balanced,” Don reflected.

“Better than the town,” Owen agreed.

“You’ve seen to that,” Jae congratulated him. “If not, I wouldn’t be here.”

“Maybe,” Owen allowed.

“You pushed very hard to get me to take this job. Entering Wonderland.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Sometimes it’s as weird as the Cape,” Don acknowledged. “It a separate world when I cross one of the bridges.” “Until he gets to Provincetown,” Rob quipped.

“I’m not any more comfortable there, and you know it,” Don rebutted. It was one of their ongoing jokes.

“Too much competition,” Rob told the others.

“About the high school,” Elena redirected. She turned to Owen. “Is there any way we can tactfully ask for a list of all the Asian students? For maybe the last five years? Just asking for the boys might get us in trouble.”

“Unless you think it’s a girl selling the drugs.”

“Again, the guard said a boy.”

Owen nodded, and Elena hoped they’d all read the notes she’d sent them the previous evening. They summarized what she’d learned.

“But the guard didn’t seem very sure,” Ike objected. “Or too specific.”

“It’s what we currently have.”

“When you ask for a list,” Owen told her, letting the others know he was thinking of this as her case, “let’s make it as broad as possible – every student who’s presently enrolled. We’ll do our dividing from there.”

“You know how long that’ll take,” Don warned.

“Not too long,” Owen assured him. “The school hasn’t grown much since we were there. If anything, it’s gotten smaller.”

“They did get a new building,” Don poked. “Since we practically tore down the old one.”

“It was falling apart in our hands,” Owen remembered. “You’d grab for a door and wind up holding a handle.”

He suspected everyone knew that because the new high school was built at the same time as the new police station. But the students didn’t seem as picky.

“One thing we don’t need to ask for is past enrollment lists,” Rob pointed out. “I can pull them from online.”

“Are they all there?” Jae asked.

“The graduation programs are. Each year, the school adds a page with scholarships, awards, and college acceptances.”

“Why?”

“Bragging rights, I guess. For the kids, parents, teachers, and administration.”

“Useful – especially to us.”

“What if a student doesn’t graduate?” Ike wanted to know. “What if she or he goes off to join the military?”

“Or simply to work?”

“I think the drop-out rate’s tiny,” Elena offered. “Kids are simply coached through summer school. But we’ll have to check.”

“Ask for that list, too,” Owen reminded her.

Ike cut to another question. “Do we have money for this? Don’s right – this could take a lot of time.”

“Again, not that much,” Owen insisted. “If we even add the last four years to the present list and check all five for the kids we think might be of interest, we’re probably only talking thirty students. And if we cut that in half to eliminate the girls...” He grinned. “This could take less than an hour.”

“Then what?” Elena asked.

Owen considered for a moment then shrugged. “That’s a good question – and one we’ll have to decide when we see what we have. First, we need to see how helpful the school board is.”