Cui Bono

I

Cammy Van Groningen beamed as she approached the secretary's desk. "I'm here to see Dr. Aragon, Ms Bixley."

Ms. Bixley pointed to the padded bench across the way from the door to the principal's office. "Have a seat."

Cammy beamed at Ms. Bixley again before doing as she was told, but felt humiliated as she did so; only the kids who got in trouble sat on that bench. She stared at the door to Dr. Aragon's office, wondering what she had done to deserve being told to sit there.

Within a few minutes, she saw her father, Frans Van Groningen, walk up to Ms. Bixley's desk, then he joined her on the bench, grinning at her as he did so. "It looks like Dr. Aragon wants to see both of us."

Cammy offered him a wan smile.

The door to the principal's office opened, and Dr. Aragon poked her head out. "Frans and Cammy Van Groningen."

Cammy and Frans entered the office, and followed Dr. Aragon's direction to sit down.

Frans regarded Dr. Aragon. According to rumours he had heard, she was a transplant from Chicago who had allegedly worked in inner-city schools there and in Detroit before taking over the position of principal at University Hill Secondary School from Evan Broomfield. He wondered what she wanted to see him and Cammy about.

Dr. Aragon sat down behind her desk. "I'll get right to the point. I received a troubling email about Cammy this morning. I have spent the better part of the day examining her records, and have even spoken to some of the teachers who have been in contact with her over the years. It turns out, Mr. Van Groningen, your daughter has a history of academic dishonesty, hers in the form of cock-and-bull stories she tells to teachers and administrators to secure advantages for herself, such as better grades on assignments than her work on those assignments have earned and getting out of detention for infractions such as ditching school, skipping class, and showing up late for class. She's also had the tendency to encourage other students to break the rules and cover for those who do, and to help her and/or other students to cheat their way through classes."

"Dr. Aragon, I can explain..."

"Explain? Or explain away? The items on Cammy's record can't just be swept under the rug, Mr. Van Groningen, much less erased. Cammy can't go through life believing she doesn't have to work for anything and she can lie her way through every and any situation. I'm not going to mark her 'educated' when she clearly isn't. In my humble opinion, Cammy isn't taking her education seriously."

"So what happens now?"

Dr. Aragon looked at Cammy. "I'm going to exercise the only options open to me now. I'm holding you back another year—you won't be graduating this year. Not only that, you won't be going to prom this year, either. You'll attend summer school, and serve all of the detentions you have yet to serve—at last count, that's one hundred sixty in total. And you'll be under my close, personal supervision the entire time."

"But, Dr. Aragon, that's not fair! My birthday's on Saturday—"

"I'm well aware of that."

"And I have things to do this summer. And I have to graduate this year and go to prom—it's the law."

"I have some bad news for you, Cammy. There are no laws against failing students, including those in graduating classes, if educators and administrators determine they don't make the cut. And attendance at prom is a privilege, not a right, ergo, it can be taken away, especially if administrators feel students either have abused it or—as in your case—haven't earned it. And now that you're on the verge of adulthood—you are turning eighteen on Saturday, after all—it's time you learned that you, like everyone else, have to do things you don't want to do, and to accept responsibility for, and the consequences of, your actions."