Class(19)
“Do you have to be so cynical?”
“You probably wouldn’t like me if I wasn’t.” Matt smiled.
“Whatever you say.” Karen smiled back. “Anyway, he invited the three of us out to visit him and his family next summer at his waterfront mansion.” Karen didn’t actually know for a fact that the island house was on the waterfront, but she assumed so. She also assumed her husband would reject the invitation outright. But she needed to go through the motions of asking him so she could feel frustrated and resentful but also admire his steadfastness to his principles.
“Sorry—I’ll leave the social climbing to you,” said Matt, right on cue.
“So you’d rather spend the entire summer stuck in the city,” said Karen, “sweltering to death and going to ‘family swim’ at the overchlorinated YMCA pool than get wined and dined in some gorgeous house with ocean breezes while Ruby plays in an actual pool that doesn’t require shower shoes when you walk around it because there aren’t pubic hairs everywhere you look?”
“I thought your whole thing was that you hated vacations.”
“Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t.”
“Karen, I don’t know this guy from Adam,” Matt continued. “What am I going to do there? Lie in a lounger humming to myself while the two of you talk about what happened to everyone in your freshman dorm?”
“Fine,” she said, still playing the martyr even though she had to admit that her husband had a point. “You’re not invited. Okay? Forget I ever said anything. It’s better to be hot and bothered and have integrity than to actually enjoy the summer. Because life is long.”
Matt rolled his eyes and sighed. “Speaking of shower shoes, I’m going to shower, if you don’t mind.”
“Why would I mind?”
After he disappeared, Karen sat down on the sofa with her laptop and began composing a message to Maeve’s mother, Laura. Just as she was typing the sentence I hope Maeve is doing okay, an e-mail from Laura herself uncannily flashed across Karen’s screen. On further inspection, she determined it was a group e-mail sent to all the parents in Ruby’s third-grade class. Karen quickly scanned the message. It read:
Dear Room 303 Parents,
As some of you know, our daughter, Maeve, was injured Friday morning during the community-unit celebration. Evan and I had an early-morning work commitment and were unable to attend. But we’ve pieced together what happened by speaking to various people who were there at the time. We also saw firsthand the injuries suffered by our daughter, who has a fractured septum, had to spend a full day in the hospital, and is now suffering from PTSD.
This is not the first time that Jayyden Price has bullied our daughter. What happened on Friday was part of a long-standing pattern that began in second grade and that includes verbal taunts and, in at least one case prior to Friday’s incident, physical violence. During recess last spring, he kicked Maeve in the shin, causing severe bruising.
We have felt privileged to be part of a school community that prioritizes diversity. But our daughter’s physical safety trumps all else. Principal Chambers does not seem to agree. Here is a transcript of our meeting with her yesterday, which my husband, Evan, recorded:
Evan: We don’t feel safe having our daughter in the same class as this child [Jayyden Price].
Ms. Chambers: I can assure you that [Jayyden] is receiving all the special services this school offers. He meets with our school psychologist three days a week, and since the incident, he has been banned from recess. There is no excuse for what he did to your daughter, but I ask you to appreciate that he has an unstable family situation. And I understand that your daughter can be provocative.
Evan: So you’re blaming our daughter for having her nose broken? Unbelievable—
Ms. Chambers (interrupting): I’m not saying that.
Laura: We feel sorry for Jayyden. But our first priority is keeping our own daughter safe. How can it be that, as principal, your first priority is not guaranteeing the safety of the children at this school?
Ms. Chambers: I can do my best to create a supportive and accountable environment, but I cannot guarantee the safety of any child. I wish I could. [Laughs.]
Evan: Well, you can guarantee that our daughter will not be bullied by Jayyden by removing him from the school and sending him somewhere for troubled children.
Ms. Chambers: I cannot make Jayyden leave this school. Nor is there anywhere I can legally send him. This is a public school, and he has just as much of a right to be here as Maeve does.
Evan: Well, then we’re taking Maeve out.
Ms. Chambers: We’ll be sorry to see your family go—and we hope you change your minds.
In short, she offered nothing—and we will not, alas, be changing our minds. Maeve will miss all her friends at Betts, just as we will miss being part of the Betts community. But we feel we have no other choice but to remove her from the school. We’ve appealed to the board of education this week for a safety transfer to another elementary school in the district.
Thank you for your support and understanding,
Laura Collier and Evan Shaw
(parents of Maeve Collier-Shaw)
Karen’s first emotion, before she realized what the e-mail actually amounted to—namely, a kiss-off to the parent body of Betts—was hurt. In Laura’s attempt to piece together what happened, why had she not reached out to Karen? Had Laura developed a stealth friendship with one of the other mothers in the class? Karen’s second emotion was embarrassment and discomfort on behalf of Jayyden and his family. Then she recalled that there was no e-mail contact info on the class list for Jayyden, so it was unlikely that Aunt Carla or any of Jayyden’s cousins would ever see Laura’s letter. Karen’s third thought was that Ruby would be upset when she heard Maeve was leaving Betts.